The Other One Carved in Stone
by Crystal Rose of Pollux
Summary: Even though Yugi passed the five Capsule Monster trials, the time has come for another challenge. This time, Seto Kaiba must rise to the new challenge. Can he succeed? Completed with Chapter 12 and Epilogue!
1. The Island and the Pyramid

Author's Note: This story takes place sometime after the end of Pharaoh's Memory. I based this on the Capsule Monsters mini-series in the anime, because I thought it was well done, but wished that Seto had been in it, so I wanted to send him on his own quest. I am planning five brand-new trials for him to face, so I hope this goes well… Oh, and I came up with all of the verses in the later chapters, too! Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

* * *

The man brought forth the lit pendant to Shadi. 

"Here is the proof that I have passed all five trials," he said. "Now will you grant me the power I came for?"

"You were not listening, Bandit Keith," said Shadi. "I said that after completing the five trials, you also had to face and defeat one of the two warriors depicted in the Stone Tablet after he, too, had passed the trials as well."

Shadi indicated the all-too-familiar tablet on which two ancient figures were carved.

"That one looks like Yugi Muto…" said Bandit Keith.

"The one you speak of is the Pharaoh," said Shadi. "His spirit has returned from whence he came, and even if he were here, you could not face him."

"Why not!?"

"He has already passed the five trials of the Capsule Monsters and turned down the power that was offered to him," Shadi explained. "As such, he would not be permitted to take the trials again. You must therefore face the other one carved in this tablet."

The former champion Duel Monster player glanced at the other warrior. He looked vaguely familiar. And then he noticed the creature carved above him: the Blue Eyes White Dragon.

"Kaiba!" he exclaimed. "It's Kaiba!"

"Indeed, that is the name he is referred to in this era," said Shadi. "But before you can face him, he must pass all five of the trials you went through."

"How am I supposed to convince Kaiba to take your challenges!?" Bandit Keith asked. "He wouldn't even believe that there was a Capsule World or this power that's up for grabs!"

"I have told you all that I can," said Shadi. "Whether or not Seto Kaiba takes the challenge is his own volition."

With that, Shadi vanished.

Bandit Keith turned to his followers.

"See to it that Kaiba gets here," he ordered.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the lively town of Domino, Seto Kaiba himself was immersed in his latest project. His azure eyes focused upon the computer screen in front of him, taking in the mass of incoming data. 

He scowled involuntarily as his cell phone rang; it was one of his greatest pet peeves to be interrupted in the middle of his work. But he took the call all the same.

"Kaiba," he said, his eyes not wavering from the computer.

"Sir...?" came the anxious voice of Roland. "I... I don't know how it happened, Sir. Mokuba has vanished... without a trace."

Now Seto turned away from the computer at last.

"What!?" he demanded.

"We only hope he wasn't kidnapped," continued Roland.

"_If he has been, it wouldn't be the first time..._" Seto thought to himself. "_The kid always suffers because of those lunatics who are after me..._"

"What do you want us to do, Sir?" asked Roland.

"I'll be there in a second," Seto replied.

He departed his office, trying to assure himself that Mokuba was alright.

* * *

"Do you have any idea who did this?" Seto was asking his staff, trying not to express how worried he truly was for his brother. 

"We saw people skulking about," said one. "They looked like the Rare Hunters from three years ago…"

"But that can't be…" said another. "Marik wouldn't do something like this; he's changed, hasn't he?"

"That isn't to say that some of his former Rare Hunters changed their ways, too," Seto replied.

"But why would they want Mokuba?"

"They don't," he said.

He didn't need to elaborate.

"Sir," said another one of the staff, handing him a map. "We found this."

"There's an abandoned island circled on it," said another aide. "It's a long way from here…"

"I have no choice," Seto replied. He turned to one of his staff members. "I'll be leaving immediately and alone."

"Do you think that's wise, Mr. Kaiba?"

Seto considered this. He wasn't too keen on the idea of the whole "team" mentality; he had been used to going at any task alone. And his pride preferred it that way. He knew very well that if Yugi and his crew found out about Mokuba's disappearance, they would volunteer their services, and the thought of having to deal with all of them in tow confirmed his resolve; he was in no mood to put up with their antics.

"Yes, it's wise," Seto replied. His briefcase, though stacked with cards, also housed emergency food rations and medicines. Seto may not have been the most optimistic person around, but he had long been prepared for such an event. It was just one of the many occupational hazards of being the head of Kaibacorp. 

And within the next five minutes, he was already in flight aboard his personal jet. En route to the island, Seto now had a chance to size up the situation. He prayed that Mokuba was safe; of course, Mokuba's current state of well-being depended solely on who was behind his disappearance. Pegasus was the first suspect that came to his mind. If Pegasus had somehow employed the Rare Hunters, Mokuba would be somewhat safe; the Millennium Eye was long gone, not that Seto really understood it. But as much as he didn't like to admit it, Seto had to agree that Pegasus had changed his ways after Duelist Kingdom. But what about Dartz? The last Seto had seen of Dartz was when he had bound to the serpent of Atlantis. Yugi later claimed that Dartz, too, had changed his ways, but Yugi was too trusting. But why would Dartz enlist the Rare Hunters when he had his own band of followers? Seto realized that all of his prime suspects all had their own entourages and had no need for Rare Hunters. _It must be some crazed lunatic behind this,_ Seto realized. And that made him fear for his brother even more.

* * *

After a few hours, Seto saw the island that the Rare Hunters had marked on their map. He wouldn't have given the island too much thought had it not been for the large pyramid that was visible from the sky. The pyramid looked about the size of Khafre's pyramid at Giza, but much newer; it wasn't as worn as Khafre's pyramid, and it shone with its outer coating of white limestone. 

"_Terrific…_" he thought, sarcastically, as he brought the jet to a smooth landing. "_Just when I think I'm finally free from all of that ancient stuff, it's déjà vu all over again…_"

It was inevitable that the Rare Hunters would have something to do with the pyramid, so without any further considerations, he headed towards the massive structure.


	2. The Portal

The businessman ventured into the ancient structure. He knew that he couldn't risk calling for Mokuba; he had the element of surprise, and couldn't afford to lose it.

A panicked cry seem to come from deep within the pyramid; it was the faint, but unmistakable, voice of a child.

"_Mokuba_!" Seto's mind screamed.

The cry was short and abrupt, as if the one screaming had been stopped in mid-scream. And the feeling that Mokuba's presence was just ahead now flickered out. Seto feared the worst. But before he could grasp onto those thoughts, the sound of approaching footsteps filled the corridor.

"_Of course_," Seto realized. "_Whoever kidnapped Mokuba must have installed infrared cameras in the pyramid, waiting for me. Why didn't I see this coming!?_"

Seto punched the wall in frustration, but that action somehow triggered one of the pyramid's mechanisms. The panel of wall revolved 180 degrees, taking Seto with it to a new passageway. Seto pounded on the wall again, but it refused to move this time. He could do nothing for Mokuba as long as he was lost in here, he realized.

"What's happened to me…?" he asked himself, under his breath. "I was always on top of everything. There was a time when I could protect Mokuba with my hands tied behind my back. When did I become weak…?"

It would have been easy to blame Yugi; it was only after Yugi unleashed Exodia upon him that Seto's life started slipping from his control. It was soon after Seto's defeat by Exodia that Pegasus tried taking over Kaibacorp, and things had never been the same since.

Praying that Mokuba was merely unconscious, Seto continued down the passageway.

* * *

The passageway led to a large room, featuring an ornately tiled floor several feet in area. Seto's sharp azure eyes scanned the room. The floor resembled a map of some kind. As he walked forward to inspect it, he paused as he stepped on something. Glancing at the ground with his flashlight, he saw that it was a Duel Monster card. 

"Mokuba?" he asked, trying to see if he was present in the room.

"You won't be finding your brother here," said a voice.

As a businessman, Seto met hundreds of people per year and had long since learned to commit voices, faces, and names to memory. It took his mind only an instant to match the voice to a name.

"Bandit Keith," Seto accused, eyes narrowed.

"Ooh, very good, Rich Boy," he replied, sarcastically. "But I'm glad you finally decided to show up here."

Rare Hunters swarmed the exit of the room. Seto calculated his odds, wondering if he might overpower at least a few if need arose.

"So you became the new head of the Rare Hunters?" asked Seto. "How fitting for a thieving vulture…"

"Don't try me," warned Bandit Keith.

"You kidnap my brother and then give _me_ orders!?" he replied, voice rising. "I demand you release him!"

"Release?" mused the thief. "Your brother is no longer here."

The fight was beginning to leave Seto now.

"What are you saying…?"

"He's not in this world anymore," Bandit Keith replied. He indicated the map depicted on the tile floor. "If you'd like a family reunion, you might want to take a look there."

Seto's mind was screaming, "_Trap!_"

"Do you even know where you are, Kaiba?" the card shark asked. "This is a pyramid that bears a portal to a world where Duel Monsters live. They are born from capsules, and they return to those capsules when they sleep. And while they sleep, they are ripe for taming. And that map is the portal to that world. But there's another secret in that world. Solve it, and a great power lies within your grasp."

"And why are you telling me this?" asked Seto. "I would think you'd claim that power for yourself, if it even exists."

"It does exist!" snarled Bandit Keith. "See for yourself!"

Seto wasn't about to fall for it.

"Sorry, but I'm not interested," he replied. "There's nothing in your little magic world that would be of any use to me."

"Not even your brother?"

"What…?"

"He's there, lost and wandering," taunted Bandit Keith. "And that world is infested with Duel Monsters. That doesn't inspire much confidence, now does it?"

"I'll find him," Seto vowed. "And after I do, you and I have important matters to discuss."

"I'll bet."

Seto stepped to the edge of the map, his mind racing. There couldn't be power waiting for him, could there be? But… assuming that there _was_ power there… would it be enough for him to be on top again? Would it make him powerful enough that no one would lay a hand on Mokuba or Kaibacorp again?

Seto shook the thoughts from his mind. It couldn't be true; even the strange Duel Monster World had to be a lie. The second he took a step forward onto the map, Bandit Keith would unleash his trap. But he didn't have a choice now; the Rare Hunters were standing behind him, practically forcing him to go on.

Holding his breath, Seto stepped onto the map. Blinding light flashed about him. His body felt as though he had just crossed the event horizon of a black hole and was being pulled in. And then all went dark.

* * *

"That's done it," said Bandit Keith, watching Seto vanish. "He'd better pass those trials quick; I'm bored already…" 

"You are a fool, Bandit Keith," said Shadi, materializing. "To incur the wrath of the White Dragon keeper shall certainly be your downfall."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because the five trials destined for him are even greater than the ones passed by the Pharaoh," replied Shadi. "Should the White Dragon keeper pass them, he shall gain powers far greater than you bargained for."

"I'm ready for him," said the card shark, taking a capsule from his pocket. "I made a deal with this one here…"

"Forget it," said Shadi, with disapproval. "You were a bigger fool to trust _that_ one."

"I know what I'm doing," the thief snarled. "But what if Kaiba can't pass the trials?"

"If the White Dragon keeper should perish, which I fear is all too possible with these trials, then the power you seek falls to you by default--"

"And my business partner gets his end of the deal," finished Bandit Keith, pocketing the capsule.

Shadi glared at him

"May Ma'at prevent such a thing…" he muttered. And Shadi vanished.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Domino, the gang was watching Yugi and Joey play a round of Duel Monsters for old times' sake when Yugi paused in the middle of his turn. 

"Something wrong, Yugi?" asked Joey.

"No…" he replied. "I just thought I heard the call of a Millennium Item."

"I bet it's Atem," said Téa.

"Yeah; maybe he's just saying 'hi' or something," agreed Tristan.

"I don't think so; it's not the Puzzle," said Yugi. "It sounds like the Rod."

"Marik's saying 'hi'?" asked Joey. "I mean, think about it… it's cheaper than calling long-distance from Cairo…"

"No…" said Yugi. "I think it's Kaiba; something's happened to Kaiba."

* * *

Yugi was not the only one who sensed the call of the Millennium Rod. In a world where only spirits roamed, pharaohs of old were talking amongst themselves when one of them sensed the call of the Rod. 

"Sethos?" asked Atem, as his friend and cousin seemed distracted. "Is something wrong?"

"Something is amiss… something concerning my modern-day self," Sethos replied.

"I suppose it was too much to hope that Kaiba would stay out of trouble even after the fall of Zorc," sighed Atem.

"Dare I leave the spirit realm to aid him…?" pondered Sethos.

"Knowing Kaiba, I doubt he would want your help…" Atem mused. "Your other self is quite keen on handling things alone."

"I pray he can."

"Oh, he can," said Atem. "I have battled your counterpart on numerous occasions, and he is quite capable of claiming victory on his own. My only concern is that he refuses to accept any help; I've often told him to change his ways. If only he can realize that a team will always have more power than just one, no matter how much power that one may hold, then Kaiba would be truly unbeatable."

"May the White Dragon watch over him," said Sethos.

* * *

Seto slowly regained his senses, awakening on a stone floor. 

"Thrown in a dungeon," he growled, getting to his feet. "I knew it was a trap…"

He trailed off as he realized that he wasn't in a dungeon at all, but in fact on the turret of a castle.

He tried to get his bearings. For a split-second, he thought he might have been sent to Duelist Kingdom, but soon found that he could see two suns setting near the horizon. So much for the Duelist Kingdom theory.

From his vantage point, he could see vast fields, thick forests, high mountains, a seaside, and other topographies. Strange, unearthly calls and roars reached his ears. So… this was the world Bandit Keith had mentioned? If this part was true, then perhaps the power…

"_No_," Seto ordered himself. "_First things first; I need to find Mokuba. He could be anywhere…_"

His eyes scanned the land around him, searching for some signs of movement. No such luck—he'd have to search the hard way.

Seto glanced furiously at the setting suns.

"Don't get smug, Bandit Keith," he growled, not sure if the card shark could even hear him or not. "I'm down, but I'll never be out."


	3. Capsules and Choices

Realizing that remaining on the turret wasn't doing him any good, Seto opened the doors leading to the lower floors of the castle.

"_Lit torches…_" he thought. "_A sign of life… but that can be good or bad…_"

He followed the lit torches to a foyer. A fire burned in the hearth on the far wall. But Seto noticed the opened drawbridge, and he made a move to leave when a voice rang out from a shadowy corner of the room.

"Who are ye, trespasser!?"

"I could ask you the same," Seto countered, preparing for an ambush.

But whatever he had been expecting was nothing along the lines of the hoard of Blade Knights that swarmed the room.

The speaker stepped forward, revealing himself to be King's Knight.

"Trapped by one of Yugi's monsters… go figure…" Seto muttered to no one in particular.

"You have no business being here, Boy!" said the King.

Seto's better judgment was now at war with his pride. His judgment was telling him to put on an act of respect and try to talk a way out. His pride, however, vowed that he wasn't about to bow before anyone—man or monster.

His thoughts were diverted by the raising of the drawbridge, which had been his only way of escape. Better judgment went out the window as Seto realized he would have to fight his way out.

"Get rid of him!" roared King's Knight.

The nearest Blade Knight raised its sword and swung at him. By reflex, Seto raised his arm to shield himself from the blow, bracing himself for the pain that would soon follow. But it never came. He heard the sound of metal on metal, and glanced to see that some sort of shield-like object was on his arm, which had mercifully blocked the attack. But he knew that his luck wouldn't last much longer.

Seto backed up against the wall, and he noticed that on the mantle next to him was a strangely shaped oval figurine just over a foot high. The firelight cast a golden glow over it.

Seto didn't stop to think. He grabbed the object and hurled it at the nearest Blade Knight, sending it flying. He used the diversion to return to the staircase, but out of the corner of his eye, he could see the golden object begin to crack. He was out of sight when he heard a beastly roar, and he quickened his pace, praying that there would be a way out from there.

He paused at a first floor window, trying to judge the distance from the window to the moat below. It seemed adequate, providing that the moat was deep enough. There had to be a way to find out…

"This way!" he heard a voice yell. "You, there! Don't move!"

The Blade Knights were back. Seto weighed his options. He knew he could either challenge the Knights and lose for certain, he could surrender and throw himself at their mercy, or he could take his chances with the moat.

The beastly roar filled the air again, and a familiar Beast Warrior leaped over the heads of the Knights and stood barely a foot away from him, sword raised.

"Voarse Raider…?" Seto asked.

The creature didn't move until the Blade Knights attacked. Then, he turned away from Seto, engaging in combat with the Knights.

"Retreat!" the lead Knight ordered.

Voarse Raider watched them go, taunting them in his own tongue.

Seto half expected Voarse Raider to turn on him now, but the creature remained quiet. And then he understood.

"'They sleep in capsules, ripe for the taming'…" Seto quoted. "That lunatic was right…"

Seto didn't have time to ponder this; a series of reinforcements was rapidly approaching him. They weren't Blade Knights, either; they were large and burly, carrying a shield the size of a door.

"Big Shield Gardnas…" Seto said to the Voarse Raider. "Their defense is too high for you; you'd better retreat."

The creature nodded. In a flash of light, it vanished, a small gold-tone capsule in its place.

Momentarily forgetting about the approaching creatures, Seto retrieved the object.

"This isn't real…" he said. "Either I've gone crazy, or--"

He was cut off by a blow from one of the Gardna's burly arms. Shaking off the blow as best he could, he pocketed the capsule and jumped through the stained-glass window.

Mercifully, the moat water was deep, and he swam to the other end. He growled in frustration as he attempted to pull strands of pond weed and shards of stained glass from his soaking hair and clothes. His side was still sore from where the Gardna had struck him, and now that the suns had set, he realized that there was no point trying to navigate his way in the dark.

His ears caught the sound of a snapping twig. Someone was out there, and was approaching fast. He turned to face the approaching person, but paused at the mention of his name.

"Seto, is that you?!" a voice asked, and a person emerged from the underbrush. 

"Mokuba!?" Seto exclaimed. "Are you alright, little brother?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" he replied, cheerily. He paused, glancing at the glass and pond weed that covered Seto. "Can the same be said for you...?"

"Never mind," Seto replied. "What happened to you?"

"You mean after Bandit Keith sent me here?" he asked. "Well, I'd only been here for a minute when I was attacked by Leghuls… you know, the centipede things Weevil has? So, naturally, I ran, and… well… I saw this strange oval thing right in my way about a second too late, and I tripped… and Rude Kaiser appeared out of nowhere and saved me. And then he turned into this."

He held up another capsule.

"Well, I'm just glad you're alright," said Seto. "There isn't much we can do now, so I think you ought to rest. We'll figure this out tomorrow."

* * *

About an hour later, Mokuba had dozed off, but Seto was wide awake, mulling over what he had been able to gather from this strange world. 

So far, Bandit Keith had been right on all counts. Seto knew that he couldn't ignore the card shark's claim of a "great power" hidden somewhere. But why would he tell him this information? He certainly hadn't orchestrated all of this for Seto's benefit, so what was he going to gain from it? Being the thief he was, Bandit Keith was probably going to let Seto go through the trouble of searching for the power, and then proceed to steal it from him as soon as he returned.

But that didn't make any sense; if this power was so great, no one should be able to steal it. Better judgment was telling Seto to forget about the so-called power, but pride wasn't about to let him do so.

"_If I can get my hands on that power, everything I've lost will be once again in my reach_," he thought. "_The titles, the respect… everything I once had and lost to Yugi…_"

He liked the idea of challenging Yugi to a Duel Monsters rematch and winning against all three God Cards. Even Yugi would then agree that Seto was the better duelist…

Seto's thoughts were diverted as Mokuba yawned. Better judgment took over.

"_But this place isn't safe for Mokuba…_" he realized. "_I need to get him back to Domino before I can bother chasing after power that I'm not even certain is for real…_"

Seto let out a low sigh. Ever since he could remember, he had always wanted nothing but the best for his brother. And despite that, Mokuba always seemed to be the quarry of manipulators who were trying to have their way with Kaibacorp. During Duelist Kingdom, Pegasus once taunted Seto that in spite of his most valiant efforts, he couldn't save Mokuba from him. Seto had refused to let it on, but that remark had struck a deeply buried nerve. If after everything he had strived to achieve… if after risking everything (and then some) to ensure the well-being of his younger brother… if after all of that, it was all for nothing… what was Seto's worth as a person? What did he have to show for his numerous trials and tribulations? That was something that not even Yugi could fathom.

"_I have to get this power_," he told himself. "_If not for myself, then for Mokuba._"

* * *

Seto didn't sleep at all that night; insomnia was a common ailment for him. He spent the last several hours pondering over what he had to do. He had been debating whether to take Mokuba back immediately or to stay and search for the power that Bandit Keith had spoke of. He would come to a decision, only to second-guess himself. 

He knew that life wasn't easy, but his life seemed perpetually set at maximum difficulty. But, finally, he made his choice; one that he hoped would be the best for both him and his brother.

"So…" said Mokuba, as they had breakfast. "What's the plan?"

"About that…" said Seto. "As soon as we figure out a way out of this world, I need you to set the autopilot of the jet for Domino."

"Couldn't you do that yourself?" asked Mokuba.

Seto steeled himself for the words he had to say.

"I'm not going back with you, Mokuba."

"What!?" he cried. "Have you gone crazy!?"

"Perhaps I have," Seto replied. "But there is something here that requires my attention, and I intend to remain here until I've investigated it."

"Well, then, I intend to remain here, too!" said Mokuba, stubbornly crossing his arms.

"Mokuba, you will not argue with me about this."

"Watch me!"

The brothers glared at each other, neither one ready to back down.

But the fight was interrupted by the lowering of the castle drawbridge. King's Knight was back, flanked by his army of Blade Knights and Big Shield Gardnas.

Seto immediately seized the capsule which held Voarse Raider, unsure of what to do. His glance fell upon the shield-like object on his arm, which had a small window cut into it, just the size of the capsule.

Praying that it would work, he placed the capsule in the shield. The shield began to glow and the capsule was launched, transforming before his eyes into Voarse Raider.

Mokuba followed his lead, summoning Rude Kaiser.

"Two versus thirty…" Seto muttered under his breath. "Why am I not surprised?"

And the battle began.


	4. Lost Monsters and Golden Armor

"Attack!" roared Seto.

Voarse Raider plunged into the sea of enemies as Rude Kaiser focused on keeping the approaching monsters from crossing the moat.

The air was filled with the sound of metal on metal.

"_There're too many Blade Knights for Voarse Raider to defeat_," Seto realized. "_And the Big Shield Gardnas are too strong… But there has to be a way to win…_"

"Press forward, you cowards!" the King's Knight roared. "Forward, I said! You outnumber them!"

The Blade Knights charged ahead.

"Get that beast out of the way!" ordered King's Knight, referring to Voarse Raider.

One of the Big Shield Gardnas obediently knocked Voarse Raider into the moat with such a force that for a moment, he was too stunned to resurface.

Seto's breath seemed to leave his own chest as well. Unable to draw in air, he sank to his knees.

"Seto? Seto!?" asked Mokuba. "What's happening to you!?"

Voarse Raider surfaced, and Seto's breath returned to him as well.

That was something he hadn't bargained for.

"_What was that…?_" he asked himself. "_That was like Wheeler's duel with Marik in Battle City… The duelist faces the exact same fate of his monster…_"

"Get the other two!" roared the King.

"Seto, we'd better go," said Mokuba.

"No…" he replied, his eyes widening as he formed a plan. "Take my place, little brother."

With that, Seto jumped into the moat.

"What are you doing!?"

"Take my place!" he repeated, swimming underwater.

"You… you heard him, Kaiser!" said Mokuba, trembling now. "Don't let them get any closer!"

"Take the crocodile out next!" ordered the King.

Another strike from a Gardna sent Rude Kaiser flying.

"Kaiser, come on!" said Mokuba. "Seto put us in charge!" 

Rude Kaiser struggled to its feet. The crocodile tensed, trying to brace itself for the next onslaught.

"Stop! Stop now!" cried King's Knight.

The Blade Knights and Gardnas paused, bewildered.

"Surrender to them now!" he went on. "Now! Lay down your arms! Throw them into the water and return to the castle!"

The servants obeyed, and after they turned to retreat, Mokuba noticed that Seto had the commanding Duel Monster in a headlock with Voarse Raider standing between him and the servants. With so many knights to contend with, Seto had realized that the only way they could've won the match was to go for the top. And so he had done just that.

"You heard him," said Seto. "Inside, all of you."

The servants filed into the castle. After they had all left, Seto relieved the King's Knight of his sword and released him.

"I ask for nothing," Seto said, glaring at him. "Just tell me how I can get my brother out of this world of yours."

"I'll tell you anything," sobbed the King's Knight. "I'll give you anything you desire; I'll even give you my kingdom! Just please… please tell me what you did to my son!"

"What…?" asked Seto, caught off guard.

"Just tell me if he's alive or dead!" the Duel Monster pleaded. "Where did you see him last? Or did your follower take custody of him?"

"First of all, he's most certainly not my follower," Seto informed him. "He is my younger brother."

As he spoke, Mokuba came forward to help, and now the King's Knight kneeled before him.

"Please, whoever you are, I beg you to tell me what you know about my son!"

"We don't know anything!" said Mokuba, casting a bewildered glance at his brother.

"Don't you lie to me, Boy!" the King's Knight roared. "My son told me he was to guide a human through the marshlands and would return upon the completion of the task! It's been a fortnight, and I haven't heard from him since! Out with the truth, or I'll--"

"You will not threaten my brother, is that clear!?" countered Seto. "And, anyway, we arrived only yesterday!"

The fight left the Duel Monster rapidly.

"I… I see…" he said.

"Now if that's all," said Seto. "We're leaving."

"Seto, wait…" said Mokuba. "Maybe we should help…"

"We have our own problems," he replied, turning to leave.

"Seto, think about it," the boy went on. "If there's another human here somewhere, we could find out what this place really is!"

In truth, Mokuba was just trying to come up with a delaying tactic to prevent Seto from sending him back so soon. If Seto needed to investigate something, then Mokuba would try his best to be there.

Seto had known his brother long enough to sense his ulterior motives. But on the other hand, he had brought up a good point about another person being present in this world. Whoever it was may have some knowledge of this world, and perhaps even some information on the power hidden within it.

Seto turned back to the King's Knight.

"Exactly where did your son say he was going?" he asked.

"The marshlands about a league from here," King's Knight answered, showing the way. "The queen has been most aggrieved by our son's disappearance; she won't even leave her chambers. I fear her health might suffer should she continue to worry for his absence."

"I didn't ask for a novel…" said Seto, with a roll of his eyes.

"Please! If you find my son, I shall give you anything you wish for!" the King promised.

"I'll keep that in mind," Seto replied, and he turned to his brother. "Mokuba, I want you to wait here until I return..."

He trailed off as he noticed that his brother was not there, and was instead ordering Rude Kaiser to hack a pathway through the forest.

"You coming, or what?" Mokuba called, waving to his brother.

Seto's expression was unreadable.

* * *

Seto had intended to give his brother a telling off for heading recklessly into the forest as he had done, but realized that there was no point. As of late, Mokuba had seemed to become nearly as stubborn as Seto was, and telling him off might end up pushing him to further rebel. 

The forest eventually gave way to the marshes. Green-colored bogs surrounded them, with steam and fog clouding the path ahead.

"Hey, what's that?" asked Mokuba, leaning over the water's edge.

"Mokuba, I wouldn't do that if I were--" Seto began.

He was cut off by a green slime-like creature erupting from the surface of the water. Mokuba stumbled backwards, trying to get out of its way.

"Bad Dorover!" scolded Mokuba. "Down!"

He grabbed a fallen branch and struck the Dorover, which roared in pain and sank back beneath the surface. Considerably smug, Mokuba snapped his fingers in superiority.

"_He's my brother, alright…_" Seto thought, with a roll of his eyes.

The surface of the water broke again.

"Ah, you want more?" asked Mokuba, branch at the ready. But his confidence left him as, this time, the Dorover was joined by a dozen more.

"Next time, little brother, choose your battles!" Seto reproached him, summoning Voarse Raider.

Voarse Raider leaped into action, but the swirling fog made it nearly impossible to see the Dorovers as they attacked. Seto bit his tongue to avoid crying out in pain as he felt the same blows that were dealt to Voarse Raider.

"It's no good!" he called at last. "Fall back, Voarse Raider."

The Beast Warrior returned back into its capsule as a new monster appeared.

"Go, Invitation to a Dark Sleep!" ordered Mokuba.

The mage, in an instant, lulled the slimy creatures to sleep.

"Lucky I found that capsule when I jumped back from the water," he said. "Are you OK, Seto?"

"Do you now see why I want you back to our world?" Seto asked, through gritted teeth.

"But, Seto--"

"It was foolish enough to go near the water as it was, let alone to instigate that attack!"

"But I got us out of it!" Mokuba protested.

"We're not discussing this any further, Mokuba," said Seto, with an air of finality. "As soon as we find the King's son, you will be going home."

"This isn't fair…" Mokuba muttered quietly.

"How fair would it have been if something had happened to you?" Seto replied, overhearing him.

Mokuba didn't reply; he just vented his frustrations by kicking a nearby rock.

"I'm only trying to look out for you, Mokuba," Seto went on, his voice less austere now.

"I know, I know…" he replied. "But it's just that--"

He was cut off by a strange glow coming from the mist ahead of them. They ventured forward and discovered a small shrine in the middle of the bog.

"What is that supposed to be?" asked Seto, not impressed.

"Dunno, but whatever it, you certainly don't see it everyday…" said Mokuba, heading for it.

"Mokuba, stay right there," Seto ordered.

"I was just going to see--"

"It might be a trap," he went on, overtaking his brother.

"Oh, and that makes it OK for _you_ to check it out…?" Mokuba asked.

Seto didn't answer; he cautiously approached the shrine to find a sealed stone coffer with hieroglyphs carved upon the lid.

"Is that a sarcophagus…?"

"Possibly…" Seto replied, glancing at the carved symbols. And in an instant, his mind interpreted the ancient writing without effort.

_Ye shall have need of these contents  
Before your grueling quest is done;  
The golden mail within this chest  
Allows master and servant to become one_.

Pride and better judgment went to war yet again. Surely the "quest" the carving spoke of was of the power he sought! But he had vowed to send Mokuba home before anything else happened to him. On the other hand, it wouldn't hurt to acquire the so-called "golden mail" he needed now instead of returning here later.

Having rationalized his actions, Seto proceeded to move the stone lid off of the large coffer.

"Wait! What are you…?" Mokuba began, but trailed off at the sight of a magnificent piece of armor made from gold and emblazoned with the Wadjet Eye.

As though it had a life of it own, the armor rose into the air and locked itself onto Seto's torso. He tried, without success, to remove it. 

"What is this thing!?" he asked, frustrated.

"Well, it's definitely you…" commented Mokuba. "And it's a perfect fit!"

Seto had to ponder over his brother's words. It couldn't be a coincidence that the armor just happened to fit him. Someone had expected him to come here.

"There's something else in here, too," Mokuba went on, lifting a segmented violet pendant out of the coffer.

But before Seto could have a chance to inspect it, a low groaning made him turn. The Dorovers that had been asleep had now awakened and were slithering towards them again.

"I'm beginning to get the idea why we aren't finding the King's son," he growled, searching for a way out.

"You don't think…?" Mokuba began, pointing to the approaching monsters.

The back wall of the shrine lit up, revealing an open portal.

"Where does _that_ lead to…?" Seto wondered aloud.

"I'll go take a look!" the boy replied, grateful for a chance to lead the way.

"Mokuba--" Seto began, but he had already gone through the portal. Seto stayed behind for a moment, unable to comprehend his brother's recklessness.

"What am I going to do with him…?" he asked, to no one in particular.

Seto noticed now that the Dorovers were almost upon him. Resisting the temptation to try to battle them again, he retreated through the portal, which closed behind him.


	5. The Dragon Takes Wing

Seto didn't know what to make of the scene before him. Ancient structures were all around them. To the left stood the Colossus of Rhodes. To the right swayed the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

"What is this place?" Seto asked. "Some kind of ancient dream world!?"

"Yes and no," a voice answered.

The trio turned to see the approach of a man in a hooded robe.

"Who are you—a Rare Hunter!?" accused Mokuba.

"Not at all, my young friend," the man replied. "Welcome to this hallowed place. Here is where the lost treasures of ancient civilizations rest for all eternity. Every group of people has left something here: Sumeria, Babylon, ancient Egypt--"

"Why am I not surprised…?" asked Seto.

"A wealth of information and ancient secrets can be found in this valley," the man went on.

"Is there information on how to return to the castle of the King's Knight?" asked Seto. "I must inform him that the marshes--"

"There is a portal that leads back to the forest adjoining the castle," the man replied. "However, it is blocked by a powerful beast."

"_That_ is not a problem," assured Mokuba. "Not for us, anyway!"

"However, the location of the portal is unknown to me," he went on. "But perhaps a search through these ancient treasures might give you the information you are searching for."

"Someone's making this difficult on purpose; I'll stake my life on it…" grumbled Seto.

"What exactly is the monster that's blocking the way?" asked Mokuba.

"He goes by the name of Chimera--" began the man.

"The Flying Mythical Beast?" Seto finished for him. "_Another_ one of Yugi's monsters… But nothing I can't handle."

"Are you sure?" asked Mokuba. "We only have three monsters among us, and none of them have higher attack points than Chimera."

"Perhaps you are at a disadvantage, but you possess the Sacred Armor," the man said, indicating the golden mail that Seto was wearing.

"And what exactly does this armor do?" asked Seto.

"It allows the wearer to merge with any monster in his possession," the man explained.

"That's impossible…" Seto replied. "There's no rational way…"

He trailed off. Rationality had long since flown out the window.

"What you must do is find a creature that can defeat Chimera," the man went on. "And then you must merge with it to guide it in battle."

"Then we need to start looking!" said Mokuba, trying to take charge. "Seto, you check out Babylon. I'll check out Troy--"

"Mokuba…" Seto countered in a strict tone.

Mokuba let out an audible sigh.

* * *

Seto took charge once again, and a somewhat sullen Mokuba agreed that it would be better to have a unified tactic against Chimera. The robed man led them through civilization after civilization, but there were no new capsules in sight. 

"Alas," said the man. "The one who was here last must have claimed them all for himself and his minions…"

Seto made note of the claim; perhaps it was the same person who had hired the king's son as a guide and vanished.

The man went on, upset.

"Look at how he has ploughed through the lost treasures of Egypt…" he sighed. "Who knows what accounts these hieroglyphs say?"

Seto picked up a piece of papyrus and read it aloud.

"_Defeat the Chimera, and bring proof  
Of the victory before the Knight King.  
Do so, and of the completion  
Of the first task the scribes shall sing._"

"First task of what?" asked Mokuba, trying to read the ancient writing without success.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Seto replied. "But we need to let King's Knight know that our search in the marshes came up empty, and we can't get back without beating Chimera anyway."

"So, you can read the scripts?" asked the robed man, intrigued. "Perhaps you shall find some help as to how to defeat Chimera without the need of another monster."

Seto's patience was wearing thin, but he half-heartedly glanced through the sheaves of papyrus until the image of a man with a jackal's head made his heart stand still.

"Anubis!" gasped Mokuba, recalling all too well how the creature had invaded Domino barely a few years ago.

Seto's memories of the incident were rather vague; most of the actual details were derived from the accounts of Mokuba and Yugi, both of whom asserted that Anubis had possessed him. If it had just been Yugi making the claim, Seto would have dismissed it as another attempt to get him to believe in the supernatural, but Mokuba's insistence and obvious worry over the incident remained at the back of his mind.

Seto's gaze then fell upon the hieroglyphs below the image of Anubis, which he translated for the others.

"_In year three of the Nameless Pharaoh's reign,  
Wealth and prosperity blanketed the land.  
But to the West, trouble was arising.  
Lord Anubis approached his brethren,_  
'_Alas,' he said. 'The Pyramid of Light  
Hath divided my spirit into two:  
Myself, and one who threatens the Pharaoh.'  
And after a counsel, it came to pass  
Osiris, Thoth, and Ra sent to the King  
Manifestations of themselves to fight.  
With their aid, the King and High Priest Sethos  
Defeated the dark half of Anubis,  
Trapping him in the Pyramid of Light,  
Thereby restoring the will of Ma'at._"

Seto didn't know what to make of the verse; he only gathered that Anubis had two sides to him, the evil side of which had supposedly been in the Pyramid of Light. If that was the case, then that was what supposedly possessed him during the incident.

"That explains everything," said Mokuba, his eyes wide. "Because you and Yugi defeated him in the past--"

"We can't prove that," Seto insisted.

"—He wanted revenge on both of you," he went on. "That's why he--"

"Mokuba, whatever this Anubis tried to do, it's over," Seto insisted. "He's history, and I mean that literally."

"Aye, but history repeats, does it not?" asked the robed man.

"What are you saying!?" Seto asked, growing more suspicious by the moment.

"A darkness so deep is not extinguished so easily."

"That's impossible!" said Mokuba. "Seto's right about this one; he and Yugi creamed him! Even Pegasus had to admit that they finished him off!"

"As much as I'd like to agree with you, Mokuba," said Seto. "Since when was Pegasus the expert?"

"Never…" the boy admitted.

Seto turned back to the robed man.

"What do you know about Anubis?" he asked.

"I do not know much," the man replied. "But with the Pyramid of Light gone, should the darker half of Anubis recover his strength…"

"Let him get his strength back if he wants," Seto countered, dismissing it. "That wolfman (or jackal, as the case may be) won't be able to come within a mile of Kaibacorp--"

He was cut off by a loud roaring coming from one of the temples.

"I don't think he appreciated that remark…" said Mokuba.

"My friends, that is not Anubis," said the man. "That is the call of Chimera. Apparently, the portal lies within one of the lost temples of Sethos. Pharaoh Sethos succeeded the Nameless Pharaoh and built several temples. One of these temples was never found, but was said to be in honor of a most ferocious creature with eyes that burnt like fiery sapphires."

"What!?" Seto asked.

Not stopping for an answer, he crossed the threshold of the temple. Chimera stood guarding the far wall of the temple, where a portal gleamed. But in the middle of the room, standing proudly on a plinth, was a large monster capsule—the sole survivor of the previous traveler's pillaging.

Chimera charged at him as he made a run for the capsule; he knew instinctively what slumbered within it, and he was going to free it come what may.

His hand slammed upon the capsule. A blinding light streamed from it as it cracked open, but Seto didn't need to see at all. A familiar sound reached his ears; it was the cry of a creature he knew and trusted. It was the creature that personified his own spirit. And sure enough, the light dimmed to reveal the full splendor of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Chimera paused ever so slightly in its attack, taken aback by the appearance of a creature that was clearly stronger than it. The creature's two heads glared at Seto and the dragon, growling a warning.

Seto wasn't the least bit concerned now. His confident smirk had made its way onto his lips. He snapped his fingers, and the dragon unleashed a stream of lighting at Chimera.

The creature dodged, its fury revived.

"Attack from above!" ordered Seto.

Blue-Eyes took wing, but now Chimera leaped into the air to follow it. Chimera proved to be the faster flier—he didn't pause at all in his flight, causing every one of the dragon's attacks to miss. Chimera now went on the offense, clamping both sets of jaws onto the dragon's wings.

"Don't back down, Blue-Eyes!" Seto growled, as he felt the pain rising in his own shoulder blades. "You will _not_ lose to that freak!"

"Seto, it's no good!" said Mokuba, who had followed their guide into the temple. "Chimera's too fast!"

"The Sacred Armor!" called the robed man. "Combine the dragon's strength with your agility!"

Seto's thoughts raced furiously. True, he had never seen anything like the armor he had found, but there was no possible way he could merge with the Blue-Eyes. And yet… perhaps that was the power he had been searching for… How much more powerful could a person be than merging with the strongest light-attribute creature in all of Duel Monsters?

The golden armor glowed with a brilliant light as the Blue-Eyes approached him, practically pleading for him to lend his sharp mind and swiftness to the dragon's cause as Chimera still refused to release its wings from its two jaws.

"Alright," he said, giving in. "I have nothing left to lose."

The light became blinding now, but Seto could feel the dragon envelop him. White Lightning coursed though him, invigorating his very being.

With but a wave of his arm, he successfully forced Chimera away. The beast lunged again, but Seto took to the sky again, pausing to glance at what he had become.

The armor he was wearing was no longer golden, but shone with the brilliance of the scales of the Blue-Eyes. The armor was no longer restricted to just his torso, but now encompassed him completely, with only his face and hair being the last visible traces of his human self. But the strength he felt… He had never felt such power in his life before.

Attached to the armor was a scabbard, made of the same material. From it, he drew a broadsword that sparked with a surge of White Lightning.

Chimera didn't know what to make of the new being before it; the dragon had been larger than the now present intruder. Deciding that its quarry would be easier to defeat, Chimera pounced again. And that was its last mistake, for Seto was more than ready.

In a flash of scales and steel, it was all over. Defeated, Chimera vanished into nothingness.

The dragon armor glowed again, and Seto felt the strength and power retreat from him as he and the Blue-Eyes separated. The sudden loss of strength caught him off balance, and he fell to his knees, trying to catch his breath.

The others were at his side immediately.

"Seto!" gasped Mokuba, amazement and worry both evident in his voice. "Are you alright!?"

"I'll be fine…" he assured him.

The Blue-Eyes gave a slight growl of thanks and transformed into one of the small capsules, which Seto retrieved.

"That was _amazing_," Mokuba went on. "You took Chimera out in five seconds! ...But what about the proof of your victory? How do we prove that you defeated Chimera without any evidence?"

"We _have_ evidence," said Seto, glancing at the robed man. "We have a witness."

"Indeed," the man replied. "I shall vouch for the battle's outcome before the King."

After Seto had regained his strength, the group proceeded through the portal.

* * *

"So, you have returned from the marshlands?" asked the King's Knight. "Did you find any sign of my son?" 

"No, but we did defeat the Chimera, which, as I understand, had long been considered a menace," Seto replied.

"And I can bear witness, Father," the robed man replied.

All eyes turned to the man as whispers and murmurs filled the room. The man removed the hood of his robe at last.

"Jack's Knight!" exclaimed Mokuba.

King's Knight was stricken speechless now; the silence was broken by a slight sheening sound as one of the five segments on the pendant Mokuba had been carrying was now illuminated.

Seto glanced from the pendant to the reunited Knights.

"I think you owe us some answers about this place," he said at last, eyes narrowed.

"Indeed… indeed," replied the King, struggling to conceal his joy. "Yes… tonight we shall have a banquet in honor of the both of you, during which you shall have all of the answers you seek!"

"I don't need a banquet…" Seto began, but trailed off at the look on Mokuba's face; clearly, he was enjoying being celebrated as a hero. "…But that's your prerogative, so whatever," he added.

Mokuba could sense that he was the reason why Seto had decided to go along with the banquet.

"_Thanks, big brother_," he thought. "_I just hope you'll let me stay on here_… _When will you understand that I want to help, too…?_"

Seto didn't give any indication that he had sensed Mokuba's query; he merely proceeded to traverse his own deep thoughts and come up with his own answers.


	6. The Pride and the Fall

Seto couldn't deny that he wasn't at least slightly grateful for the food; they hadn't eaten a thing since breakfast. Even so, he proceeded to bring his questions before the King's Knight.

"You and the Jack's Knight both mentioned another person had come here," he asked. "Who was he?"

"A nasty man," the King's Knight replied. "He reeked with deceit, and was flanked by his followers, all of them dressed in violet robes."

"Rare Hunters…" Seto growled. "So Bandit Keith _was_ here…"

It all made sense now; Bandit Keith had come here looking for power, and had obviously failed. So he had forced Seto to come here and get it for him. But there was no means by which the Blue-Eyes White Dragon would serve Bandit Keith… unless that wasn't the power he had been searching for.

"This other traveler…" Seto began. "He was looking for something, wasn't he?"

"Indeed," sighed the King's Knight. "Those who arrive here from other worlds are presented with the challenge of five tasks. If he or she can complete them, they have the right to make a claim over a power that can grant them the strength to rule over multiple worlds."

Mokuba, who had been in the middle of his feast, exchanged glances with his brother. Hadn't there _always_ been crazed, power-hungry people showing up in Domino at one time or another? Usually, it was Yugi who would put them in their place. Mokuba wondered if Yugi knew about the power. If he had, he had never brought it up. Then again, Yugi wasn't one to boast.

"It is said that once a claim on this power is made, the claimer must face in battle one of two ancient warriors who have to pass the five trials themselves," said Queen's Knight, who had spoken for the first time. "Only once has this happened; two kings fought for this power, and the one who prevailed was one of the ancient warriors: a Pharaoh who shared his form with that of a modern-day youth."

"That's Yugi!" Mokuba exclaimed, confirming his previous query.

"Yugi was here before!?" Seto demanded.

The Queen's Knight was taken aback slightly.

"Yes… but the boy you speak of refused to accept the power he had rightfully won."

"_Of course he would…_" Seto thought to himself. "_Well, _I'm_ not that noble—or that foolish—to let it slip by me…_"

"So how does Bandit Keith fit into all of this?" asked Mokuba.

"He is not one of the two ancient warriors," said Jack's Knight. "So he is waiting for him to complete the tasks and make the claim. And your brother is the embodiment of this second ancient warrior."

"Where have I heard that before…?" asked Seto, with a slight roll of his eyes.

"The seriousness of the matter is this," said the King's Knight. "That Bandit Keith, as you refer to him, will bring dark days if he should reign with that power, which he will claim if you fail. You might be our only hope, young man. Therefore, you must succeed in this quest."

"_Sorry, but 'saving grace' isn't on my résumé_," Seto thought to himself. "_But 'ambitious' is, so you got lucky. I have my own uses for that power._"

"Is there anything else you wish to know?" asked Queen's Knight.

"Yes," he answered. "I'll be staying here to complete my investigation into these so-called trials, but I need to know if there is any way my brother can be sent back to our world."

"What!?" said Mokuba. "Seto--"

"I've made my decision," Seto replied, firmly.

"But, I--"

"To that end," Seto went on. "Is there a way he can go back?"

"There... is a way..." the Queen's Knight said, glancing at Mokuba, who looked outraged.

"Seto, I'm not a helpless kid anymore!" he said.

"I'd want to agree with you, Mokuba, but don't forget that you ended up here against your will in the first place."

Mokuba looked away, unable to find a proper comeback.

"If you wish to have your brother leave, there is a portal in the vaults of this castle," said Jack's Knight, not commenting on the brothers' argument.

"Then it's settled," Seto declared.

"No, it isn't!" Mokuba retorted. "Seto, what if something happens to you out there!?"

"I'll be fine, Mokuba," he replied.

"Seto, remember when Voarse Raider almost drowned!?" Mokuba countered. "You couldn't breathe, either! I thought you were having a heart attack or something! What if something like that happens again!? What if you need help!?"

"I never _need_ help," Seto informed him. "Yugi and his entourage always insist on giving it, despite the number of times I insist that I can handle things myself."

"I think they have the right idea…" said Mokuba. "Maybe you don't 'need' help, but that shouldn't stop people from giving it!"

Seto was caught off-guard by this remark.

"We're brothers, Seto," Mokuba went on. "You've always been there for me every time I needed you. So I want to help, too."

Seto's expression was unreadable.

"Alright," he said at last.

"Really!?" Mokuba asked, amazed that he agreed.

"Then, it is indeed settled," said Queen's Knight. "Good luck to you both."

* * *

The brothers took their leave of the Knights, but not before receiving another papyrus sheaf from Jack's Knight. Seto translated the hieroglyphs again for Mokuba's benefit. 

_Defeat the monsters in the Turret of Winds  
To complete task two; but know this:  
Your only hope of victory lies  
In the awakening of the slumbering Osiris._

"Osiris?" asked Mokuba. "Wasn't he the one who was thrown into the Nile by his jealous younger brother?"

"So I've been told, but do me a favor—don't get any ideas…" Seto replied.

Mokuba laughed.

They continued on, reaching a range of mountains. A tall stone structure emerged from the peaks, its full height obscured by clouds.

"Great!" exclaimed Mokuba. "Now all we have to do is climb the mountains, walk right in, and find Osiris!"

Seto glanced at the turret, eyes narrowing.

"It's not going to be that easy," he announced. "Did you notice that something was missing from that tower?"

Mokuba pondered this for a moment before noticing it, too.

"There's no door!" he exclaimed. "But that doesn't make any sense!"

"I think it does," said Seto. "It's the Turret of Winds, after all. Whatever lives in there is probably a wind-attribute monster, and most of those monsters can fly."

"So we need to get a monster that can fly," concluded Mokuba. "Well, we have one! We have Blue-Eyes!"

"_I_ have Blue-Eyes," Seto corrected him. "Wait here while I investigate that tower."

"But, Seto, I thought I was going to help--"

In an instant, Seto had summoned the dragon and used the armor to merge with it again. He took to the skies, leaving his brother behind.

"_I suppose I should be grateful he let me stay in this world at all…_" Mokuba thought.

* * *

Seto, in the meantime, was testing the increase in speed and agility he had acquired upon merging with the Blue-Eyes. He was making excellent time, but paused in midair upon seeing a flock of winged creatures approaching him. His reptilian eyes saw them coming far earlier than he would have ordinarily. They were half-human, half-avian creatures with wings emerging from their arms. He had seen them many times before; they were the card of choice for Mai Valentine. And he knew that they were no match for him. 

Seto tore right through the flock of Harpy Ladies so fast that he was greeted with shrieks of fury and confusion. They were after him now, but he had widened the gap between him and them. Pleased with himself, he continued on. He could see the doors of the Turret of Winds at its pinnacle.

One of the Harpy Ladies uttered a strange cry. Upon hearing it, a red-scaled dragon emerged from the doors, roaring.

Now Seto paused; Harpy's Pet Dragon wouldn't have been a challenge under normal conditions, but the monster drew power from the Harpy Ladies around it. And there were enough Harpy Ladies present to take out the Blue-Eyes _Ultimate_ Dragon; the Blue-Eyes _White_ Dragon wouldn't stand a chance.

If there was one thing that Seto had learned over the years, it was to always choose one's battles with the utmost scrutiny. He turned his attention back to the Harpy Ladies; if he took out enough of them, it would power down their Pet Dragon to a manageable level.

But as the winged creatures swept around him, his noticed a drop in the acuity of his senses. His equilibrium began to betray him, his head becoming clouded as he attacked blindly. Taunting screeches pounding through his head as the Harpy Ladies dodged his blows. They were laughing at him, which only enraged him into another series of missed attacks.

"_What's wrong with me!?_" he thought, furiously. "_Chimera was more powerful than these things, so why are they getting the better of me!? No Harpy Lady can beat a Blue-Eyes White Dragon!_"

He growled in pain as the Pet Dragon's flames swirled about him. Fortunately, his armor offered him a shield against most of the damage, but he hadn't gone completely unscathed.

"_Ignore him for now; focus on the Harpies_," he ordered himself.

But he couldn't maintain his focus. His senses were dulling more and more, and suddenly, he realized why.

"_Shadow of Eyes!_" his mind screamed.

The Harpies' bewitching eye shadow was the one thing responsible for his current state of mental fog. They had anticipated that he would turn his attention to them, and he had fallen perfectly into their devious trap. Now, their dragon would attack while he was in this weakened state.

"_This isn't going to work!_" he chided himself, as bolts of White Lightning missed their marks completely. The Harpies' laughs were ringing in his ears as he tried to retreat, but failed. Shadow of Eyes was doing its job, rendering him senseless at the most inopportune moment.

Seto made one last attempt to pull free of the Harpies' spell. He soared higher into the air, the creatures and their dragon following him relentlessly.

"_Ignore them; ignore them all!_"

He tried to focus on the open door of the turret several yards below him as claws and flames grazed him. Praying that his vision wasn't betraying him, and that he was, in fact, in a direct line with the door, he folded in his wings and let himself fall, completely at the mercy of gravity.

The triumphant calls of the Harpies were right behind him; the flock was surrounding him, ready to deal the last blows of the battle before he could escape.

Seto's vision was getting more and more blurred as he careened downwards, but out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a flash of golden scales. He didn't know what to make of it, nor did he have time to try to figure it out; the door of the turret was rapidly approaching him.

He tried to brace himself for the crash-landing as the Harpies screeched louder. He was either going to succeed in forcing the door open, or fall to the mercy of his winged pursuers.

Darkness fell upon him, the calls of the Harpies being the last thing he was aware of.


	7. Awakening Osiris

When Seto awoke, he immediately tried to get to his feet, but fell back upon the feeling the wave of pain. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon was beside him, also wounded; they had apparently de-fused after the impact with the door had depleted the last of their energy.

Seto instantly recalled what had happened before; he remembered the Harpy Ladies and their Pet Dragon. He also recalled the flash of golden scales. But all was driven from his mind when he heard a familiar voice.

"Are you OK, Seto?"

"Mokuba!?" he asked, in disbelief. "I thought I told you to wait until I returned!"

"Well, you're lucky I didn't listen!" the boy retorted.

"I'm in no mood to argue now," Seto replied, trying to get to his feet again. "Just tell me what happened."

"Just after you left, I found another capsule," Mokuba explained. "It was Kaiser Dragon. And when I saw that the Harpies were giving you a tough time, the dragon and I came to help."

"Where are we now?"

"The good news is that we're in the turret; after you crashed in, Kaiser Dragon and I followed, and we barricaded the door. The bad news is that all of those Harpy Ladies are trying to break the door open as we speak," said Mokuba. "So we have to move on. Can you walk?"

"I think so," he replied. And to prove his point, he started walking down the corridor.

Blue-Eyes followed suit, trying to spread its wings as it gave its characteristic roar of pride.

"Don't I get a 'thank you' or something?" asked Mokuba.

"Thanks, little brother," Seto said. "Though I could've handled everything on my own…"

"Uh-huh…" the boy replied, with a roll of his eyes. "So you were only letting the Harpies _think_ that they were getting the better of you, right?"

"It was the Shadow of Eyes," Seto admitted. "That's what got to me. How come you weren't affected by it?"

"Kaiser Dragon probably _was_ affected slightly, but I wasn't bonded to it," Mokuba reminded him, indicating Seto's armor. "I don't know, Seto… maybe you might want to try fighting without the armor. That way, if Blue-Eyes goes into a fog again, at least your mind will stay clear."

Seto considered this as the Blue-Eyes exchanged glances with him, as though asking for his take on the situation. The bond between him and the dragon certainly increased their power, but as Mokuba had pointed out, it opened up unforeseen complications.

"That may be true, Mokuba," he said. "But there's still that Pet Dragon to deal with, and Blue-Eyes won't stand a chance against that thing alone. Even with the armor, that thing was too powerful. I need to come up with a different plan of attack. There has to be some way of taking out the Harpies before they overcome me with Shadow of Eyes again."

"No wonder the challenge here is to defeat all of the monsters in the tower," said Mokuba. "But didn't the parchment say that we needed to wake up Osiris, or we wouldn't have a chance?"

"Then we have to--" Seto began, but he was cut off.

Harpy's Pet Dragon had forced the front doors open, and now he and all of the Harpy Ladies were after the brothers.

"I can't fight them like this…" Seto growled, still to weak from his previous battle.

"Invitation to a Dark Sleep!" called Mokuba, summoning the sorcerer again. Unfortunately, the sorcerer was also affected by the Shadow of Eyes, and was only able to get their pursuers slightly drowsy as opposed to the deep slumber he would have wanted.

Mokuba called back the mage, Seto called back Blue-Eyes, and the brothers retreated, praying that they could lose the attacking monsters.

* * *

"I think we lost them for now…" said Mokuba, looking back. "That Shadow of Eyes ruins everything! Isn't there any way around it...?" 

He trailed off upon hearing the flapping of wings.

"Get back," Seto warned.

He retreated to the shadows of the unlit room as Mokuba sought cover behind a suit of armor. A few Harpy Ladies came into view, speaking with a winged man whom they recognized as Harpy's Brother.

"You didn't catch the intruders?" he asked them.

"They escaped," one of the Harpy Ladies replied, bitterly. "Oh, if only Kazejin were here…"

"We don't need Kazejin," snarled Harpy's Brother. "He left me in charge of this turret when he left, and I shall give the orders!"

"Well, then?" asked the second Harpy Lady.

"Release _all_ of the Pet Dragons," he replied. "Between your Shadow of Eyes and just one of them, we were able to defeat one of them--"

"_You_ defeated nothing!" hissed the third Harpy Lady. "The entire flock except you powered up the dragon!"

"Fine," agreed Harpy's Brother. "You defeated him. But there is no way he will last against two dozen powered-up Pet Dragons. Are you sure all of the Monster Capsules are gone?"

"Djinn the Watcher of the Winds took them away, apparently under the direct orders of Kazejin," she replied. "He took them all, except the one Kazejin told him to leave behind."

"Kazejin told him to leave one?" he asked. "Why?"

"Kazejin has since left, and even if he had not, I shall not be the one to question him! And do you realize what the fury of Kazejin will be if he returns to find intruders in the Turret of Winds!?"

"He shall not find them of the Pet Dragons work efficiently. The door has been guarded, you say?"

"Yes."

"Then the intruders shall be captured soon enough."

The winged creatures all departed the room.

"Seto…?" asked Mokuba.

"What?"

"What do we do!?" he asked. "We can't escape, and now they're going to unleash more Pet Dragons on us!"

"I am concerned, Mokuba," Seto replied. "But something I overheard intrigues me. Apparently, this place belongs to Kazejin. Do you remember the special effect of that monster?"

"Sure; he's one of the three monsters that fuse into the Gate Guardian, right?" asked Mokuba.

"Exactly. He's out somewhere right now, ordering all Capsules to be removed except one," said Seto. "He's obviously on some sort of mission; maybe he's looking for another monster. And perhaps this monster is somehow connected to him and the monster that's still here."

Mokuba's eyes widened in realization.

"You think he's trying to gather the other two monsters that make up Gate Guardian!?"

"And if I'm correct, that capsule he left behind contains either Sanga or Suijin," rationalized Seto. "And if we had either one of those in our possession, the Gate Guardian wouldn't be able to form."

"Which means that we'd be in a position to make a deal or two with Kazejin," concluded Mokuba. "_That's_ how we defeat the monsters here! …But then how does Osiris fit into all of this?"

"Never mind about Osiris; we need to get that Capsule if we have any hope of gaining the upper hand," said Seto.

"But what about all of the other Pet Dragons?"

In response, Seto summoned Blue-Eyes and used the armor to merge with it.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Mokuba. "I don't think you've had enough time to recover from the last fight, and that goes for Blue-Eyes, too. And what about the Shadow of Eyes?"

"If we can get to that capsule, it won't be an issue," Seto said, trying to reassure himself as well.

Seto knew that he was taking a chance merging with the dragon again. But he was a businessman, and would never have been where he was today without taking risks; many of them had been against the odds. This was no different; there were risks, and there were benefits. But these risks and benefits were far greater than any business venture could show.

A series of roars from down the corridor dissuaded his train of thought. Realizing that the Pet Dragons were hunting them down, the brothers fled, searching for the Capsule that was quickly becoming their one key to victory.

* * *

The brothers searched the stone corridors, trying to stay ahead of their assailants. Finally, Mokuba discovered a large room with several pedestals. They were all empty, save for one upon which stood a single Capsule. 

"Seto!" he exclaimed.

Seto was there in an instant.

"That Capsule doesn't seem right," he said, before Mokuba could claim it. "It's not gold like the others; it's not even metal. I think it might be a decoy, if not some sort of trap."

The Capsule stood upon its pedestal, glimmering red. For some reason, this Capsule had been carved out of ruby. It gleamed brightly, the Wadjet eye carved on it staring at the brothers.

"Voarse Raider!" called Seto, summoning the Beast Warrior. "Can you inspect the room for any traps?"

The creature dashed around the room, trying to set the traps off, but nothing happened. Finding nothing, Voarse Raider picked up the Capsule. He was about to bring it back to the brothers when one of the Pet Dragons swooped from the ceiling, seizing the Voarse raider in its talons, proceeding to haul monster and Capsule out the window.

Seto took off after the Pet Dragon, and Mokuba summoned Kaiser Dragon and followed him. They followed the Pet Dragon outside where the other dragons were waiting, along with all of the Harpies.

"Well done," said Harpy's Brother, taking the ruby Capsule from the trapped Voarse Raider. "Kazejin would have been after my wings had we lost the Capsule to these thieves. Let him go."

The Pet Dragon let Voarse Raider fall from its grip. Seto and Mokuba made an attempt to catch the falling creature, but he had vanished beneath the sea of clouds below them. Seto turned away from his fallen monster to glare at Harpy's Brother, his sword at the ready.

Harpy's Brother merely laughed, and Seto attacked. Shadow of Eyes from the surrounding Harpy Ladies was once again clouding his judgment, aim, and mind, as he attempted to seize the Capsule from the winged man. The two dozen Pet Dragons were spewing flames everywhere; Mokuba and Kaiser Dragon were trying to keep their distance to dodge them, but even Kaiser was showing signs of being affected by the Shadow of Eyes.

Seto had been in mid-attack when his strength suddenly left him. He realized why; despite being bonded to the Blue-Eyes, Voarse Raider was still his monster, and he would therefore receive the same amount of damage as his monster had. Voarse Raider must have just now been defeated after his fall, and Seto's strength had fallen accordingly.

Harpy's Brother smirked at him now; he, too, realized why Seto had stopped in his attack.

"Go join your monster," he sneered, and he formed his clawed foot into a fist, striking Seto with it.

Seto was much too weakened; he, too, began to fall out of the sky. Harpy's Brother watched him fall, distracting himself for one moment. That was all Mokuba needed; a well-aimed tackle from Kaiser Dragon caused Harpy's Brother to lose his grip on the ruby Capsule, which fell after Seto.

Mokuba went after the Capsule and his falling brother as two dozen Pet Dragons attacked them. Harpy's Brother dove down to retrieve the Capsule, but Seto had enough consciousness left in him to see the Capsule falling a few feet away from it. His hands closed upon the capsule at the same instant Harpy's Brother seized it.

Harpy's Brother may have been strong enough to pull the Capsule away, but there was one unforeseen factor. Capsules responded to human touch more than that of Duel Monsters.

Red light shone from the Capsule, forcing Seto to close his eyes as he continued to fall. Harpy's Brother screeched, and Seto suddenly became aware that he was no longer falling, but in fact rising. And his lost strength was following suit, his power increasing once again.

"Seto!" he heard Mokuba call.

Seto looked to see himself surrounded by a wall of large red scales. He used the armor of the Blue-Eyes to fly higher to get a better look at what he had unleashed from the ruby Capsule. He stared in amazement at the two-mouthed dragon before him. The creature's long serpentine body extended to beyond a thousand feet in length, with a gigantic pair of wings emerging from its back.

And suddenly, everything made sense. The verse on the papyrus had said that the task could only be completed after Osiris had been awakened. And Seto had unleashed Slifer the Sky Dragon, which Yugi had once referred to as the embodiment of Osiris. He had awakened Osiris.

Slifer opened one of his enormous mouths as the wall of Pet Dragons still attacked. With one breath from the giant dragon, all two dozen Pet Dragons were defeated.

"We must warn Kazejin!" cried Harpy's Brother. He and the Harpy Ladies fled in a panic.

Slifer turned his attention to them. But before he could attack, Mokuba noticed that another segment of the pendant had now been illuminated. With the retreat of the Harpies, the second task had been completed.

Slifer took the brothers to the ground before he, Kaiser Dragon, and Blue-Eyes all retreated into their Capsules.

"So, it wasn't Suijin or Sanga that Kazejin was looking for," said Seto, smug about his victory. "It was Ra and Obelisk."

"You think they're here, too?" asked Mokuba. "That makes sense… remember that papyrus we read back in that ancient village? It mentioned Osiris, Ra, and Thoth sending 'manifestations of themselves to fight.' Thoth must be Obelisk! Seto, if you got all three…"

"I know," he replied, his eyes narrowed in anticipation of acquiring the others. "I intend to do just that."

Bandit Keith would regret sending him here. Seto would use the Egyptian Gods to win against him; they had chosen him, just as Obelisk had done so in Battle City. And this time, not even Yugi could stop him from gaining all three.


	8. Moving Mountains

Despite acquiring Slifer, Seto had not forgotten about Voarse Raider. He and Mokuba spent the next hour searching for him, but after finding nothing, the brothers gave up.

"It's no use," Seto said, after a while. "We need to go on."

Mokuba nodded.

"Anyway," the boy said. "We have Slifer. He should be a lot more powerful than Voarse Raider…"

He paused as he came across another piece of papyrus.

"Did you leave this here?" he asked Seto.

"No; that must be the new one," Seto replied, taking it. He quickly read the hieroglyphs with ease.

"_There is but one thing to do  
Should you wish to complete task three.  
Traverse the towering mountain  
And guide the peak into the sea._"

"Are you sure that's what it says?" asked Mokuba, his eyebrows arched. "I've heard of moving mountains before, but I always assumed that they were speaking metaphorically…"

"And they try to make it seem so easy," said Seto, derisively, as he reread the ancient script. "'One thing to do…' Who are they kidding?"

"Maybe you _are_ over-thinking it," suggested Mokuba. "Maybe it's just something easy to trick us… I've got it! We go find the highest mountain, grab a rock from the peak, and throw it into the ocean!"

"Somehow, I doubt it," Seto replied. "Fortunately, we're still in the mountain range, so we don't have to travel too far. Slifer!"

He tried to summon the large dragon, but it did not appear.

"What's wrong?" asked Mokuba, as Seto examined the red capsule.

"_Forgive me_," came a voice from within the capsule. "_But my powers, vast as they may be, are restricted in this world. My capsule now has a seal that can only be broken upon your leave of this world; then, I can aid you. Thoth and Ra have similar restrictions upon them._"

"So we have Slifer, but we can't use him?" asked Mokuba. "And even if we find Obelisk and Ra, we can't use them, either? How does that help us? You don't even have any other monsters, besides Blue-Eyes!"

"That may be true, but don't forget that we still have to find Obelisk and Ra," Seto replied. "We don't have to send them back into their capsules when we find them. And all three of the Egyptian Gods will prove to be useful when we get back and face Bandit Keith. And don't forget that my trust lies first and foremost with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon."

"And what about Harpy's Brother? He's still out there somewhere, looking for Obelisk and Ra, too! And he's going to set Kazejin on us after he finds him! And who knows; maybe Sanga and Suijin are out there, too!"

"Then we'll beat them to the other Gods," Seto went on. "I am not about to be outdone by Duel Monsters, Mokuba."

"Well, you nearly were," Mokuba reminded him. "If I hadn't gotten Harpy's Brother to drop Slifer's capsule, who know what would've happened!?"

"This discussion is over."

"Seto--"

"Without Slifer, we have to use our other dragons. I, of course, shall remain bonded to the Blue-Eyes," Seto went on. "Can Kaiser Dragon keep up?"

"Kaiser Dragon will be fine," said Mokuba. "But I'm not so sure about Blue-Eyes… or you, for that matter. You're really getting obsessed with that armor, Seto. Don't you think you should try going back to your old battle style of staying human and summoning the dragon?"

"That isn't enough," Seto replied. "If I'm struggling as it is_ with_ the additional power, can you imagine how much worse it would be without it? This isn't like using a Duel Disk."

"I _know_ that," Mokuba said. "Give me some credit of intelligence! I'm just saying that you might be using that armor more than you should be! It might have some long-term effects!"

"I'll be fine," Seto insisted.

With that, he took to the skies. Mokuba leaped back onto Kaiser Dragon and followed him, wanting to believe that his brother indeed knew what he was getting himself into. Unfortunately, this wouldn't have been the first time Seto had gone in over his head.

* * *

The brothers searched the mountains from the skies and quickly found the highest mountain, the peak shrouded in more mist than the previous peak that had housed the Wind Turret. 

"Sure is warm and stuffy up here," said Mokuba. "There must be some geysers around here or something. That would account for the extra steam. Can you see anything ahead?"

"Barely…" Seto replied, trying to tap into the dragon's powers of infrared sight. "You might be right about the geysers; there's definitely something up ahead, though it's impossible to tell form here."

"Then let's just get that rock already--" Mokuba began, but he was cut off upon a low rumbling. "An earthquake?"

And then Seto understood.

"Mokuba, don't go any further!"

"Why not?"

"That isn't a geyser at all; it's a lava pit."

"What!?"

"It makes sense now," said Seto. "'Guide the peak into the sea'… It's talking about the lava flow. This volcano is going to erupt, and we need to see that the lava reaches the water."

"And… how do we do that…?"

"You're not doing anything," Seto replied. "I kept quiet about you battling the Harpies, but you are not going to be anywhere near this volcano if it's going to be spewing lava everywhere."

"But how are you going to get the lava to go to the sea?"

"I'll have to improvise as I go," he replied. "Now get out of here before this thing goes off."

"Right…" said Mokuba, though he didn't like the idea at all. "Come on, Kaiser Dragon."

He left again.

"And don't think about coming back the moment my back's turned!" Seto yelled after him.

"_Too late…_" Mokuba mused to himself. He was already planning to take part in the completion of the task; gone were the days when he would be forced to run and hide while Seto did all the work. Mokuba had become a good duelist in his own right, and he would prove it.

* * *

After Mokuba had "left," Seto proceeded onto the top of the volcano. He hovered a few yards above the crater, glancing at the bubbling lava, trying to come up with some sort of plan. The lava was quickly reaching the rim of the crater, and would spill over in minutes. 

His thoughts turned back to Mokuba; he doubted that Mokuba would stay away. He didn't even know why he had bothered telling him; out of sibling duty, perhaps. But Mokuba wasn't a fool; even he knew his limits. Or did he? Seto wasn't sure if he knew his _own_ limits; that was what these tasks were beginning to prove. Losing to the Harpies had been a humiliating (not to mention painful) experience, and he wasn't about to allow any repeats or anything similar.

Seto's eyes fell upon large sheets of obsidian rock, and an idea came to him. Using the powers of White Lightning, he managed to carve a large depression in the rock. With another well-aimed attack, he smashed through the rim of the crater just in front of the trough. Now, when the lava rose high enough, it would spill into the depression, which he would have to continue to carve all the way down the volcano as a channel until the lava reached the water. But it wasn't impossible; not with Blue-Eyes bonded to him, anyway.

Seto congratulated himself on his scheme and proceeded to continue to carve the trench into the rock. Slifer had proved to be useful in one respect; not only had he restored all of the strength that Seto had lost during his battle with the Harpies, he had increased his strength. Seto's White Lightning hit its mark every time; slowly but surely, the trough was being carved.

Mokuba, in the meantime, was riding on Kaiser Dragon in circles around the volcano crater, trying to see what was going on within the suffocating clouds of sulfur and steam. He saw the flashes of lightning, and realized what Seto was doing. He had to admit that Kaiser Dragon wouldn't be able to provide much help, due to his hindered vision.

Mokuba was considering returning to the base of the mountain after all, but another rumbling from the crater made him pause. Even Seto, who had been in the middle of another White Lighting attack, froze, because a new sound was heard above the rumbling, which, this time, was not even an earthquake. It was a low roar, but it wasn't from the volcano. It was from something alive—and apparently angry. And only a powerful creature could withstand lava with such heat as that of the molten rocks that were among them.

Seto now flew back over the crater of the volcano, another White Lightning at the ready to greet the approaching creature.

"Anytime you're ready…" Seto growled, almost eager for some action.

He was not disappointed; a large Lava Golem emerged from the volcano crater, enraged at being awakened by Seto's trench carving.

Seto immediately launched the White Lightning at the creature. Lava Golem used the metal cage in its hand to absorb the attack, and then swung the cage at him. Seto dove out the way, realizing the beast's plan; he was going to try to capture him in the cage, and then drag him down into the volcano. Seto knew that Blue-Eyes was a tough monster, but even he doubted that the dragon could withstand the liquid fire, bonded or not.

Lava Golem attacked with its fire element now; plumes of lava emerged from its fingertips and spewed in all directions, one of them narrowly missing Mokuba and Kaiser Dragon.

"_They never mentioned __this__ in that papyrus!_" Mokuba thought, trying to keep his dragon from panicking.

Kaiser Dragon shrieked, and both Seto and the Lava Golem heard the dragon's frightened cry.

"Mokuba, I told you to get out of here!" yelled Seto.

"Calm down, Kaiser, calm down…" Mokuba ordered him, still not ready to retreat.

Lava Golem roared and sent more fountains of lava in the direction of Kaiser Dragon's shrieks.

"NO!" roared Seto, more fiery than the lava around him. He sent a relentless wave of attacks to the Lava Golem, desperate to get it to ignore Mokuba and challenge him again.

His plan worked. Mokuba was alright for the moment; he had ordered Kaiser Dragon to dive out of the way just in time. He wanted to let Seto know that he was OK, but he couldn't risk attracting the Lava Golem's attention again.

Seto, in the meantime, had lured the Lava Golem out of the comfort of the volcano crater. He was hoping to lure it into a fall down the mountain so that he could return to focusing on the task.

Then, both of the brothers noticed that the lava of the volcano itself had finally overflown into the unfinished channel. Mercifully, it was slow-moving, but Seto knew that he had to finish the trench, or there would be no way to control where the lava ended up.

His lapse in concentration nearly led to his imprisonment as he narrowly avoided the Lava Golem's cage again. There was no way the creature would let him concentrate on the channel. Of course; it had to be this way. It would have been too easy for him to carve the trough without a fifty-foot magma beast breathing fire down his neck, so one had arrived.

And now, unless he figured out something soon, the task at hand would be out of his control and impossible to complete. And he would be forever sleeping beneath the volcano.


	9. Out of the Frying Pan

The Lava Golem lunged at Seto again, who struck back with White Lightning.

"_What's he trying to do!?_" Mokuba asked himself, as Seto continued to lure the creature down the mountain. "_He's going to get caught if he keeps that up; it's like he's…_" He trailed off. "_It's because of me! He's trying to keep that thing from catching me, so he's acting as a decoy!_"

Mokuba felt horrible now; because of him, Seto was in danger, and the task would not be completed… unless…

"Kaiser, we need to carve out the rest of that trench!" Mokuba ordered the dragon. "Use the steam as a cover!"

The dragon obeyed, and a beam of energy emerged from its jaws to aid in what Seto had started. Of course, Kaiser Dragon wasn't as powerful as the Blue-Eyes, but it was better than nothing.

Seto, in the meantime, had heard the dragon's shriek.

"No…" he muttered under his breath. "Mokuba, get out of here!"

He dodged a glob of lava that the Golem hurled at him, and then resorted to a new tactic. Instead of attacking the Golem itself, he flew around the creature, trying to break up the obsidian sheets that it was standing upon.

"Mokuba, wherever you are, get out of the way!" he ordered.

He dove to the ground; the impact set of a shock wave large enough to cause the obsidian to crumble.

"Going down…" he smirked, as the Golem lost its footing.

Mokuba saw the Golem rolling down the mountainside, and quickly ordered Kaiser Dragon out of the way.

Seto hovered beside him, arms folded in annoyance.

"What exactly were you trying to prove?" he asked.

"That I can fight if I want to," the boy replied. "And don't expect me to believe that carving out more of the channel wasn't helpful."

"Just keep carving for now, and we'll discuss this later," Seto countered.

A roar from below startled both of them as more of the rock crumbled. The Golem's arms came out of nowhere, cage in hand; he had apparently burrowed into the ground and had come back to attack them.

Seto unleashed another round of White Lightning, but it still had no effect.

The cage swung again, and this time, Seto was not as lucky; he hadn't been captured, but the rim of the cage had struck him, sending him crashing to the ground. He looked up in time to see the cage headed for him, but it never hit its intended target.

Mokuba had steered the Kaiser Dragon in front of the cage's path and leaped off of its back, intending to sacrifice his dragon. But he had not been quick enough, and he, too, had been captured.

Before Seto could even move, the Golem's arms disappeared beneath the obsidian sheets.

"Mokuba!" he yelled.

There was only one thing he could do; follow the Golem's tunnel and pray that he could overtake it before it was too late.

* * *

Mercifully, the Golem's fall down the mountain had disoriented it enough so that it was not heading for the peak, as it had intended, but for the base.

"_What do I do!?_" Mokuba thought, as they proceeded down the underground tunnel. "_Seto's going to get fried if he tries to fight back, and, knowing him, that's exactly what he's going to do… I have to get out of here myself or we're both in trouble!_"

Mokuba reached his hand through the bars of the cage, trying to pick up a small fragment of rock that he could use to pick the lock of the cage. But they were moving too fast, and he withdrew his hand with a cry of pain as he struck it against the tunnel wall.

"Kaiser, I hate to admit it," he said, flinching from the pain. "But we're toast… literally…"

With a roar the Lava Golem burst through the rock and appeared above ground, coming to a halt upon seeing the sea. He had emerged upon a cliff that overlooked the water, the volcano still spewing lava behind them.

The Golem looked around and was still scratching its head when Seto's armored foot struck from above.

"There is no possible way you can kidnap my brother and expect to get away with it…" he growled in a voice that dripped with anger.

Lava Golem roared at Seto, dropping the cage onto the ground. Mokuba was fine, though shaken.

"I can't defeat him like this…" Seto realized. "But if I can get him to fall off of the cliff and into the water, that'll douse his flame for good."

He proceeded to fly just over the edge in the hopes that the Lava Golem would try to lunge and attack, but the creature was no fool; it continued hurling lava spheres at Seto, carefully watching its footing.

Suddenly, a great "crack" filled the air. Seto and Mokuba watched in amazement as the cliff-face gave way. With a roar of rage, the Lava Golem fell into the water, defeated. The cage that had been entrapping Mokuba and Kaiser Dragon now vanished.

"I guess it was just too heavy…" Mokuba said.

Seto's eyes glanced at the cliff-face.

"No, it wasn't!" he exclaimed, his eyes wide.

Standing by the edge of the cliff, pulling its sword from the rock was Voarse Raider. It looked worse for the wear, but it apparently had retained enough strength (despite the fall) to plant its sword into the rock with such precision, it had successfully weakened the edge of the cliff enough so that the Lava Golem was too heavy for it.

"Voarse Raider!" exclaimed Mokuba. "You're alright!"

Seto now landed beside the monster he thought he had lost.

"Thank you," he said to the creature.

Voarse Raider nodded and returned back into its capsule, which Seto retrieved.

"Are you alright, Mokuba?" asked Seto.

Mokuba looked away, and even Kaiser Dragon seemed subdued.

"I'm fine…" he said, visibly upset. "Seto, I… I'm sorry about… about getting in the way again…"

"Mokuba--"

"I know you warned me and that you told me to get off the mountain while I still could," he said, angrily throwing a rock off the cliff. "But I wanted to prove to you that I could hold my own. And what happened!?" He threw another rock. "I get caught yet again and end up ruining _everything_!"

He threw another rock with a slight cry of frustration.

"Mokuba, you didn't 'ruin everything'--"

"Yes, I did!" the boy replied, angrier than Seto had ever seen him before; it was never like Mokuba to lose his temper. "Because of me, you were chasing after the Lava Golem, and you never finished the channel, so the lava won't reach the sea, and we failed the third--"

He was cut off as the lava flow emerged from the Golem's tunnel, headed straight for them; true, the channel hadn't been completed, but the lava had found the subterranean tunnel and had traveled through it. Mokuba leaped onto the Kaiser Dragon, and he and Seto took to the sky as the lava ran off of the cliff and into the water. As it did, the third segment lit up on the pendant.

"You were saying?" asked Seto.

Mokuba grinned, sheepishly.

* * *

A portal soon opened, which led the brothers to a new area of the world. It proved to be an unpleasant contrast to the volcanic mountain they had just left; they were now in an icy tundra, the temperature unbearably cold.

"Go figure," said Mokuba, flinching. "We _have_ to go to the other end of the temperature scale, don't we?"

"Of course we do," Seto agreed, derisively.

"I'm actually wishing that Lava Golem had survived its swim; I'd have found a way to catch it if I'd known we'd be coming here," added Mokuba. "Hey, Kaiser Dragon, what's wrong?"

Kaiser Dragon had collapsed.

"I think I know," Seto replied, weak himself. "Kaiser and Blue-Eyes are reptilian, so the cold knocks them out."

To prove his point, he de-fused with the Blue-Eyes, who promptly collapsed as well. The brothers recalled their dragons.

"This is bad," said Mokuba. "We can't even use our strongest monsters. What are we supposed to do?"

A piece of papyrus appeared before them.

"Hopefully this will give us a hint, though I'm not going to hold my breath over it," Seto replied, translating the hieroglyphs.

"_Thunder, Aqua, and Wind compose  
The beast that lives each day to fight.  
He has never lost, so you must rely  
Upon Thoth's grace and upon his might._"

"Obelisk's here? Great, then we're in the clear!" said Mokuba, and then he paused. "Did I just rhyme? I think those verses are getting to me… Let's finish this quick, before we freeze."

"Mokuba, I'm glad to see that you're not as upset with yourself as you were before," said Seto. "But would you mind telling me why you were so hard on yourself a while back?"

"I nearly cost us the third challenge, Seto!" he said, trying to point out the obvious. "You had worked so hard to carve that lava channel, and I almost ruined it for you!"

"Mokuba, may I remind you that I didn't come here in search of any power?" Seto said. "I only came here to help you out, and that has been and will always be my top priority."

"It shouldn't have to be…" said Mokuba, bitterly. "I should be able to take care of myself by now."

"So that's what this is really about, isn't it?" asked Seto. "That's why you've been acting so rebellious; you've been trying to prove it."

"Yeah, that's right," the boy replied. "And I have nothing to show for it; I even got captured by that dumb Golem. What am I worth if I can't do a thing to help out my own brother? Maybe I should've gone back through the portal when I still had the chance."

Seto had to marvel over his brother's words; Mokuba's self-doubt seemed to mirror his own at times. And although he had wanted Mokuba to return to their world initially, his brother _had_ helped him during the fiasco at the Wind Turret. …Wind Turret!?

"Wind…" Seto repeated. "'Thunder, Aqua, and Wind'…"

"What're you talking about!?" asked Mokuba, wondering how his words could have reminded Seto of the hieroglyphs.

"Mokuba, do you remember how the Harpies mentioned how Kazejin was not at the Wind Turret?"

Mokuba's eyes widened.

"'The beast that lives to fight each day'…" Mokuba quoted. "They're talking about the Gate Guardian!? No wonder Obelisk is the only one who can defeat it! But Kazejin had Slifer under his command back at the turret; do you think Gate Guardian has Obelisk already!?"

"I don't know…" Seto replied, his eyes narrowing. "But having Kazejin here is bad enough. Having him merged with Sanga and Suijin as the Gate Guardian is even worse. And when you throw in all of those Harpy Ladies and their Shadow of Eyes…"

"And we can't use our most powerful monsters, either…" said Mokuba. "What are we supposed to do!?"

"We search for Obelisk," Seto replied. "Hope isn't my thing, but I'm at a position where I'm forced to hope that he hasn't been found yet. If that's the case, we have to find him first."

"And what if they already found him?"

"Then we'll have to fight," Seto replied, his eyes narrowed.

"Are you serious!?" asked Mokuba. "Seto, Blue-Eyes is the strongest monster we can use, since Slifer can't be summoned, and it wouldn't stand a chance against Gate Guardian, even if the weather was good and there were no Harpy Ladies fogging its head! Do you know what you're getting into?"

"_I'm not so sure anymore_," Seto replied, silently.


	10. Into the Freezer

Seto considered their options and finally spoke.

"We need to move on and find Obelisk before it's too late," he said at last. "Let's go."

Mokuba nodded, and the brothers walked through the wind-driven snow. Poor Mokuba was shivering violently, and so Seto removed his trenchcoat and gave it to him.

"What'll you do without it?" the boy asked.

"I'll be fine," he replied.

Mokuba wasn't sure he was willing to accept the trenchcoat now; it would only illustrate the point that Seto always had to look after him. He hadn't minded that so much in his younger days, but now things were different. Seto couldn't be expected to keep looking after him, and Mokuba was still on his quest to prove that he could be as tough and as resilient as his brother.

"I don't need it, Seto," he said, holding the coat out to him.

"Mokuba—"

"No. I won't wear it, so you may as well take it back."

"I don't think that contracting hypothermia is going to prove that you can take care of yourself," Seto countered.

"Do you have to treat me like I'm still a little kid!?" Mokuba asked, the cold weather shortening his temper.

Seto glanced back at him, eyebrows arched.

"If I may remind you, you were the one complaining moments ago that you nearly ruined the last task," Seto reminded him.

"Yeah, that's right; I did," said Mokuba. "That's what makes me so mad about this whole thing. I can't do anything right…"

The argument was halted by a loud cracking sound.

"What was that?" asked the boy, distracted.

"It sounded like the ice," Seto replied. "I'd say it's coming from northeast of were we are. Something's going on there, and I think I need to check it out."

"Not without me…" Mokuba insisted, still determined to somehow prove his worth.

Seto was too tired of arguing to even try to dissuade him, so he didn't say a word.

* * *

"It's all of the Harpies!" Mokuba exclaimed, as they approached the scene.

The Harpies, sans dragons, were all striking the ice with their talons, opening large chasms and crevasses all around.

"Well, since I'm not bonded to the Blue-Eyes, I don't have to worry about Shadow of Eyes affecting me," said Seto. "But we still don't have a useable monster that can defeat them. And they owe me a rematch after what they tried to do to Voarse Raiser."

"What are they trying to do?" asked Mokuba, surveying the scene, his anger momentarily forgotten. "Either they're setting traps, or they're searching for something…"

Both brothers realized simultaneously what the Harpies were searching for.

"Obelisk!" they both exclaimed.

"I have no alternative," said Seto. "I'll have to order Voarse Raider to try a sneak attack and hope he can take out enough of them to even the playing field before the Shadow of Eyes hits."

"I have a better idea," said Mokuba. "I can summon Invitation to a Dark Sleep!"

"No; that'll just alert them."

"And how do you expect Voarse Raider to sneak up on them when there's nothing to hide behind?" challenged Mokuba. "If anything, my monster could distract them to let the Raider move in!"

"And what happens when they take out your monster, and—"

The screech of Harpies filled the air as they spotted the brothers.

"So, you have made it here!?" asked Harpy's Brother, recognizing Seto. "Where is your White Dragon? Couldn't handle the cold, could it?"

The Harpies all unleashed their taunting laughs, which Seto couldn't stand. Mokuba was furious, too; once again, he had ruined things.

"And you…" Harpy's brother said, sneering at Mokuba. "You owe me for attacking me from behind during our last fight, you little coward! I lost Osiris because of you!"

"Well, I'm not sorry!" Mokuba retorted, glad he could take his anger out on something at last. "And I'll get you from behind again in our next fight!"

"I won't be fighting you this time," sneered Harpy's Brother. "Oh, no; I wouldn't dream if it. Our master has requested a battle with you; he is most displeased about the theft of Osiris."

"Send the bill to Kaibacorp," Seto countered, sneering right back. "And we've come for Obelisk, too."

"Humph," said the winged beast. "Thoth is hidden somewhere beneath this frozen mess; we've been searching all day and have come up empty. Whoever was here before must have claimed the capsule."

"_No…_" Seto thought, furiously. "_That slacker Bandit Keith couldn't have found Obelisk… we wouldn't have been instructed to find it otherwise!_"

"Thoth is here," said a new voice.

"Still hidden," said a second voice.

"So keep searching!" ordered a third.

The Harpies all made way for the three-segmented Duel Monster that clumped over to them.

"We shall continue the search," said all three voices of the Gate Guardian. "And these two must be put out of the way before we do so!"

Gate Guardian slammed his mighty fists into the ground, making it shake with all the force of a 6.0 earthquake. The cracks of splitting ice filled Seto's ears as the icy ground beneath them gave way, and he and Mokuba fell into the icy pit.

* * *

Seto came to some time later, his head throbbing in pain.

"Mokuba?" he asked, looking around in the darkness for his brother. "Mokuba, are you alright?"

"Of course I'm not alright," came the bitter reply. "I've ruined everything again; we wouldn't even be down here if it wasn't for me. I bet Gate Guardian's finding Obelisk as we speak--"

"That's where you're wrong, Boy!" came the taunting voice of Harpy's Brother. "We're still looking for him, but I was dispatched here to deal with you two; my master had a feeling that you'd get through that fall."

"Oh, did he?" asked Seto, his mind racing furiously. Voarse Raider would be far too weak, he realized. He would have to take his chances with Blue-Eyes; though it would be weakened by the cold, it would still have a better chance of surviving than the Raider.

"Don't bother trying to summon that dragon of yours," said the winged creature. "It won't last more than ten seconds in a place like--"

"Invitation to a Dark Sleep!" ordered Mokuba, seizing the moment while the monster was occupied.

Harpy's Brother tried to fight back, but he was too late; he had fallen into a bewitched sleep in seconds.

"Good move, little brother," Seto replied.

"I'm getting sick of this capsule business," the boy fumed, seemingly not listening. "I just want to go home and go back to being vice president of Kaiba Corp."

Seto didn't know what to say. What had started as youthful rebellion was now turning into bitterness. It was the same sort of bitterness that Seto himself sometimes felt, which unnerved him slightly; he didn't want Mokuba to end up with a life as cold as his.

"I don't care about Bandit Keith anymore," Mokuba went on. "Let him go crazy. I couldn't care less, providing he leaves us alone."

"I don't think he would," Seto replied. "So we may as well knock him down a peg or two. But it isn't him that I'm worried about anymore."

"You worried about me, aren't you?" Mokuba asked. "Just like you always have been and always will be, because I'll never be able to look after myself."

"That isn't what I meant," Seto replied, his eyes narrowing. "I can't figure out what's gotten into you recently, Mokuba. You were never like this before."

Mokuba was silent; he wasn't sure what had come over him either. Perhaps getting captured by Bandit Keith had been just one humiliation too many.

But before he could reply, a torrent of water started pouring from the gaping hole above them.

"What's that!?" the boy asked.

"Gate Guardian!" Seto yelled, angrily. "He's using Tidal Surge to flood the caverns!"

The waters had revived Harpy's Brother by this point.

"Master!" he cried. "Master, don't! I am still down here!"

The Gate Guardian paid him no heed, and the water continued to pour in, despite the pleading shrieks of the Harpy Ladies to spare their brother.

"There's a passageway over there!" exclaimed Mokuba.

The brothers quickly fled down the passageway. Harpy's Brother continued to plead until the water was up to his chest. Frantically, he floundered towards the same passageway, but was swept away amidst the waters.

* * *

"We're not safe here," Seto said, as he and Mokuba tried to stay ahead of the waters. "It may be risky, but I have to bond with Blue-Eyes and try to break a hole through the cave roof."

"This wouldn't have been an issue if I had just--"

Both brothers were distracted by the screaming Harpy's Brother as the water swept by.

Mokuba flinched.

"I know he tried to destroy us…" the boy began. "But do you think we should… help him out?"

"_At least Mokuba's starting to sound like himself again…_" Seto thought. Working out his plan to grab the winged beast and crash through the roof within twenty seconds, Seto summoned the Blue-Eyes, which was rapidly falling into a typical reptilian torpor. "I'm sorry," he said to the creature. "But I need your strength again."

The dragon barely nodded and merged with him again. Seto felt his energy drop severely, but still managed to fly. He grabbed Harpy's Brother and sped towards the cave roof, but he hadn't built up enough speed. He collided with a stalactite and both he and Harpy's Brother fell back to the ice cave floor.

"Seto!" cried Mokuba, trying to revive his brother, ignoring Harpy's Brother, who was holding onto a large piece of ice and hyperventilating.

"What happened…?" Seto asked, trying to hold onto his senses.

"You crashed…" the boy explained. "Are you OK?"

"This was a bad idea…" Seto said, teeth gritting from the pain. "And this place is going to fill with water soon; how are we supposed to--"

"You… you saved me!?" asked Harpy's Brother, still twitching. "My master left me to drown, but you… you of all people saved me!?"

"It was his idea," Seto replied, indicating Mokuba; he doubted that he would've been inclined to help had it not been for his brother's empathy. Mokuba always managed to feel empathy for others, which was something that Seto had great difficulty with.

"My master abandoned me," rationalized Harpy's Brother. "He cannot be my master anymore. Take this, and free my sisters from him."

He handed the item he was holding. It wasn't a piece of ice at all, but a blue capsule, looking as though it had been carved out of sapphire.

"Obelisk!?" asked Mokuba. "You're giving us Obelisk!?"

"It swept by me while I was drowning. I had intended for my master to collect it after he found me."

Seto's strength was fading quickly, but he knew what he had to do. Slowly, his had reached for the sapphire capsule.

* * *

Aboveground, the Harpy Ladies were screaming at Gate Guardian.

"Our brother! You have slain our brother!" shrieked one of the Cyber Harpies.

"He served his purpose," said the three voices of Gate Guardian, unsympathetically. "You all live to serve me, and I didn't need his service anymore. So he had to go. Now I shall use the waters to flood Thoth out!"

The words had barely been uttered when the massive blue behemoth himself broke through the ice with Seto, Mokuba, and Harpy's Brother on his shoulders.

"Brother! Brother!" the Harpies chanted, pleased to see him alive.

Gate Guardian, of course, was not so pleased to see them. He unleashed his Thunderstroke, but one strike from Obelisk's fist was all that it took to dissipate the attack. Another blow ended the battle, lighting the fourth segment on the pendant.

"You have defeated our master," said Harpy's Brother. "Now, at last, my sisters and I are free. One of my sisters found a paper that may very well lead you to Ra. You have better need for him than we do."

Harpy's Brother handed Seto another papyrus sheaf and flew off, flanked by his sisters. A new portal opened up, and the brothers went through.

* * *

"Do you think they all went back to the Wind Turret?" asked Mokuba, as they appeared at their next destination.

"I don't see why not…" Seto began, but he trailed off after glancing around at their new surroundings. "A graveyard? Why am I not surprised?"

The cemetery that the brothers were now in was clearly old and abandoned. And it didn't help at all that both of the suns had set by this time; the brothers could just see the shapes of vases and urns scattered amidst the headstones. Seto, still bonded to the Blue-Eyes and now regaining his energy quickly, was able to scan the area with his infrared dragon vision.

"And what exactly are we supposed to do here?" asked Mokuba

Seto used his night sight to translate the papyrus that Harpy's Brother had given him.

"_Ra sleeps deep within an urn,  
Silent and hidden somewhere near.  
Awaken him to help defeat  
The one soul that you most fear._"

"I get it!" said Mokuba. "Ra's capsule must be in one of these vases! Sounds simple enough… but who's the one we most fear?"

"I wouldn't know," said Seto. "I don't fear anyone."

"Neither do I," insisted Mokuba, but then he frowned. "But watch me find a way to ruin _this_ task somehow, too…"

"Mokuba--"

"You know what?" the boy said, convinced that he was some sort of jinx. "How about you take that half of the graveyard. That way, I can just head for the hills when our fearsome friend shows up."

"Mokuba, I thought you wanted to help."

"And look where that's gotten you," Mokuba replied, bitterly. "Nearly swamped, burnt, frozen, drowned… Knowing my luck, you'll probably end up getting spirited away in a place like this. I'll let you know if I find anything."

With that, Mokuba started looking into vases with a flashlight in hand. He wasn't wandering too far off, so Seto decided to search for Ra as well, all the while trying to figure out what he could say to his younger brother. He vaguely noticed that some of the vases resembled Duel Monster cards; he saw several Pots of Greed, and effortlessly beat an attacking Morphing Jar. But he hadn't found any sign of Ra's capsule.

"Any luck yet?" he called to Mokuba, after picking up another vase.

"Yeah, if you're talking about bad luck," came the reply.

That did it. Seto decided that his brother's concerns had to be addressed. He was about to walk over to where Mokuba was searching when he realized that he couldn't remove his hands from the vase that he was holding.

He glanced at the vase more carefully with his enhanced vision, and that was when he noticed the dragon's face carved into the side of the urn. His blood froze; he recognized the urn now as the Dragon Capture Jar. And he was still bonded to the Blue-Eyes, making him a dragon as well.

The more he tried to escape the pull of the jar, the stronger it pulled back. His mind in a panic, he tried to de-fuse with the Blue-Eyes, but his arms had already been consumed by the jar, and a powerful spell was preventing him from de-fusing. With a cry, he felt his upper body lurch forward into the urn.

Mokuba glanced back at him in time to see him vanish into the Dragon Capture Jar, which fell to the grassy ground.

"Seto!" he yelled, fearing that his brother had indeed been spirited away. "SETO!?"

Mokuba ran over to the jar, and after going through it with his flashlight, realized what it was.

"Seto!?" he cried, glancing into the jar.

It was empty.


	11. The Specter from the Past

Worlds away from where the Kaiba brothers were, back in the hometown they had long since left behind, Yugi, Joey, Téa, and Tristan formed a small crowd outside of Kaiba Corporation.

"He went off in search of Mokuba?" Yugi asked Roland.

"That's… right," the man replied, not sure if Seto would have appreciated having his location divulged. "We could read the tracking signals from their communicators, but after a while… they both just vanished!"

"Where did they go?" asked Téa, trying not to imagine the brothers lost to them forever. Mokuba was their friend, and even though Seto never considered himself a friend of their group, she still didn't want to see him dead.

Roland started wringing his hands with obvious worry for his employers.

"An island far south of here," he said. "We're still receiving a signal from Mr. Kaiba's jet, but not a sign from him or his brother! I've ordered the formation of a search party; they should be ready to leave any minute now."

"Then we're going, too," said Yugi.

Roland pondered over the options. His boss wouldn't be pleased that he had invited Yugi Muto and his friends along to search for him. But on the other hand, he knew that the chances of finding him would be better with the other duelists searching for him as well.

"An island in the south…" said Joey, who had been deep in thought for the last fifteen minutes. "Doesn't that sound like the time when I won those tickets and we crashed near that pyramid in the jungle?"

"Yeah!" agreed Tristan. "That was when we landed in that weird Capsule Monsters world and Yugi had to battle that insane guy for the power to become supreme ruler!"

"So then Kaiba must be looking for that power, too…" said Téa.

Everyone exchanged glances.

"Kaiba's looking for that power!?" Joey blurted out. "Aw, man, we're in trouble!"

* * *

Seto came to and found himself in a shadowy wasteland. So… this was what the inside of the Dragon Capture Jar looked like?

That was when he realized why he was here; one of Ra's forms was a dragon! It stood to reason that someone had placed Ra's capsule into the Jar for safekeeping; that was what the papyrus had meant! All he had to do right now was find Ra… and then figure out some way of getting out of the Dragon Capture Jar.

His thoughts turned to Mokuba. His brother would undoubtedly blame himself for what had happened. There had to be some way of letting him know that he was alright.

"Mokuba!" he called out. He hadn't expected a reply; nor did he receive one.

He would have to find Ra quickly and find a way out, he realized. Mokuba would be worried sick, and he prayed that the boy would be able to hold on until he came back. And he _would_ come back; there was no way he would be spending the rest of his life stuck in a vase.

But he still couldn't figure out what the papyrus meant about "the one soul he most feared."

"That doesn't make any sense at all," he muttered in an undertone as he walked on in search of Ra. "I am Seto Kaiba, CEO of the Kaiba Corporation. I've dealt with the worst of the worst, and that's not even including half of the lunatics Yugi and his little group seem to draw in. There's no one alive that I fear."

"Your challenge never said that you'd be facing someone who _was_ alive," a cold voice replied.

Seto froze, determined to steel himself and fend off any feelings of fear. He recognized the voice; it was a voice that had haunted his youth day in and day out. It was a voice that he had been sure that he would never have to hear again. But here it was, as foul and as chilling as ever.

"Gozaburo…" he growled.

* * *

Mokuba fell to his knees. Why had he demanded to search the other side alone!? He should have helped Seto search; he would have recognized the jar and would've made sure his brother had stayed clear of it!

But now it was too late.

"Big brother…" he said, softly. "I'm so sorry… I never should have demanded to come along…" A few tears escaped his eyes. "You were right… I was never like this before. It's just that you've done so much for me when I was a kid… I thought that it was finally time that I started giving back. And that's what ruined everything…"

He trailed off as an image of the wasteland the battlefield appeared in the bottom of the jar. Mokuba was reassured to see that his brother was alright, albeit out of contact, but his relief was short-lived as he noticed Gozaburo.

"How did _he_ get here!?" Mokuba yelled, horrified. He was certain that their stepfather had been history after Noah had helped them thwart his plan to entrap everyone in cyberspace.

Back in the battlefield, Seto was demanding the same answer from Gozaburo.

"It's simple, Seto," the loathsome man replied. "They needed you to face the one person you feared the most, and here I am, courtesy of one jackal-faced friend who was more than happy to send me out of the spirit world in exchange for having you take my place there!"

That's not going to happen," Seto vowed, wondering why on earth Anubis would make a deal with Gozaburo; wouldn't it have been easier for Anubis to challenge him personally? Of course, he didn't fear Anubis; and although he was certain that he didn't fear Gozaburo as he had when he was younger, Seto could think of several people he'd rather be facing right now.

"I know what you're thinking," Gozaburo said. "You think you're invincible when you're bonded to that pathetic lizard, don't you? You're not the only one who can merge with monsters, Seto!"

"That shouldn't be too difficult for you," Seto retorted. "After all, you're one of them!"

"Oh, I am," Gozaburo sneered. "But not in the way you're thinking. You see, even though Anubis let me escape from the spirit world, I still had the same problem that I had in cyberspace: no body with which to traverse this place. So Anubis graciously merged my spirit _my_ closest monster!"

Gozaburo warped into the gigantic form of Exodia Necross.

"I have to admit… that's an improvement to that face of yours," smirked Seto, unable to resist insulting the man who had made his life miserable. But he was a lot less confident that he was letting on; Exodia had always been a symbol of his defeat… Exodia's arrival was what had set everything in his life out of sync. And here was an even worse incarnation: Exodia Necross, which was not only a symbol of his previous defeat, but also a symbol of the one he hated.

"Enough talk!" snarled Gozaburo, hurling a massive fist towards him.

Seto dove aside, but he wasn't quick enough; his stepfather's fist collided with his armored back, knocking his breath out of him.

Furious, Seto struck back with White Lightning, but Gozaburo brushed off the attack as though it had been nothing. Seto kept on dodging as Gozaburo threw more punches at him. Seto was normally fast when he was bonded to his dragon, but as Exodia Necross, Gozaburo was camouflaged in the darkness. Seto would only see the fists a second too late.

"_What am I supposed to do…? How do I defeat him when he's invisible and powerful!?_" Seto thought.

Surrendering was not an option; he would rather be destroyed before he admitted to his stepfather that he was not as powerful as he was. Seto know that he was the superior one. So why was he losing!?

"Come on, Seto!" Mokuba yelled as he witnessed the battle in the jar. "You can't let him win!"

Somehow, Seto could hear his brother's words, but he couldn't pause to reply; Gozaburo was pummeling him with blow after blow.

"Seto, you're more powerful than he is!" he heard Mokuba say. "Get him back for everything he put us through! You're the most powerful person in Domino; you can beat him! …I guess that's why I was so keen on trying to prove myself. I wanted to prove that I was as powerful as you, Seto. But even if I'm not, I _know_ that you are!"

That was it… that explained why Mokuba had been acting this way all along. He had wanted to prove that he was Seto's brother—just as tough and unbeatable as he was. And that was why his failures had enraged him.

Seto wasn't sure how he could reply the boy; he was already close to the breaking point. But his brother's words had strengthened his resolve, which was all the strength that he had left.

"Just as I thought…" said Gozaburo, as his next blow rendered Seto senseless. "You have nothing. You never had anything. Whatever you are today is my doing. And now it's time I undid it. Now, you'll _be_ nothing."

"You wish!" Seto snarled, suddenly hurling a fistful of White Lightning into his stepfather's eyes. Gozaburo roared in pain, the massive arms of Exodia Necross flailing in all directions.

Gozaburo was wrong; Seto had something. He had his brother's unwavering support. And that would be all he needed.

Rage was keeping Seto going now-- rage and a vow to his brother that he would never let this monster from their past get the better of him. White Lightning sparked all around him, creating a force field around him as he rapidly struck back. Neither he nor Gozaburo were showing the slightest bit of mercy.

"Give it up!" snarled Gozaburo. "Don't you know when to quit!?"

"Guess not…" Seto retorted. "But my armor will break before my will does!"

"Oh, I'll break you," vowed his stepfather. "You can rely on that."

Mokuba glared at his stepfather through the jar in fury. He longed more than ever to somehow join in the battle and dish out some payback of his own, and, at the same time, help Seto. As his glance fell upon the capsules he was carrying, an idea finally came to his mind.

Seto, in the meantime, was taking the blows without so much as a flinch. The cold glare never left his eyes once during the course of battle. Now, he was relying on the broadsword that had come with the armor when he had first fused with the Blue-Eyes. He hadn't used it since the battle with Chimera, but it was becoming clear that Gozaburo was mostly immune to the White Lightning.

"_How am I supposed to win!?_" he thought.

A flash of light appeared nearby, and the battle paused as a third player appeared on the field: Kaiser Dragon. Mokuba had sent Kaiser Dragon through the Dragon Capture Jar.

"Go get him, Kaiser," the boy ordered.

Seto sent a silent thanks to his brother as the fight continued. Now Gozaburo was beginning to regret making his challenge, but he was far from beaten.

"I need to find Ra," Seto realized. "That alone will end this once and for all…"

With Kaiser Dragon distracting Gozaburo, Seto was able to use his infrared dragon sight to glance around the battlefield. A mile away, he caught the tiniest sign of a sparkling object, but his eyesight was keen enough to determine that it was a capsule. He flew towards it.

Gozaburo unleashed an angered roar. Abandoning Kaiser Dragon, he used the powers of Exodia Necross to melt into the surrounding Shadows.

"Where'd he go!?" asked Mokuba, trying to tilt the jar to see if he could get a different view.

Kaiser Dragon shrieked in frustration, searching for Gozaburo.

Seto, in the meantime, was closing in on his quarry. If Kaiser Dragon could keep Gozaburo distracted for just a few more seconds, it would be all that he needed. He could discern that the capsule was carved out of peridot. His armored hand reached out, and a smirk of triumph lit his face. But he never reached it.

"Seto, look out!" cried Mokuba. But the warning came too late.

Exodia Necross's massive fist emerged from the shadows, clamping onto Seto's torso. The armor offered him some protection from being choked, but his arms were pinned to his side, leaving him unable to attack.

The rest of Exodia Necross's body emerged from the shadows now. All Seto could do was glance into that sneering face.

"So close…" Gozaburo taunted. "How painful this must be…"

Seto glared back at Gozaburo, silently cursing himself for being a millisecond too slow.

"You haven't the slightest clue how satisfying this is," said Gozaburo. "I've been longing for a chance to snatch victory right out from under your nose, just like you did to me all those years ago. Things have come full circle now, haven't they?"

Seto didn't reply.

"All that time in the spirit world, I had to put up with _him--_ that ancient spirit who looks like you. He reminded me of you, and what you stole from me," said Gozaburo, furious. "He seemed to know about that. He said that I got what I deserved from Ra's justice."

Seto didn't reply, though he was wondering how Sethos knew about him; he _had_ seen him in the world of the Pharaoh's Memories, but he hadn't said a word to him. Seto had written off the similarities between Sethos and himself as a mere coincidence. Apparently, the fact that they resembled each other had been too much for Gozaburo. Seto silently thanked his counterpart for at least granting him the satisfaction of knowing that Gozaburo's spirit had been driven mad by him.

"Ra's justice…" Gozaburo went on, sneering. "Now it's your turn, Seto. Let's see how _you_ like facing Ra."

Gozaburo reached out behind him to grab Ra's capsule, but it had vanished. Kaiser Dragon hovered overhead, the capsule firmly clutched in it's claws.

Gozaburo roared, reaching for the capsule with his other fist, but Kaiser Dragon let it fall, and Seto managed to touch it with the tip of his foot as it fell.

"NO!" roared Gozaburo, dropping Seto as the capsule glowed.

A brilliant light emerged from the capsule as Ra appeared in all his glory. With one breath, Exodia Necross had vanished.

Seto felt the ground tremble, as though there had been an earthquake. With a massive jolt, he, Kaiser Dragon, and Ra were thrown from the Dragon Capture Jar and back into the cemetery; Ra had been far too big for the jar, which had shattered. Mokuba greeted them happily as the fifth and final segment on the pendant lit up.

* * *

Meanwhile, Gozaburo found himself back in the spirit world.

"Curse you, Seto!" he roared in fury.

"_Lost again, did you?_" asked a voice in Egyptian.

Gozaburo turned to see the spirit of a Pharaoh, smirking at him with an exact replica of his stepson's face.

"_I did warn you that Ra would not turn against the one He favors…_" Sethos said.

"_Leave him be, my cousin_," said Atem, even though he was amused by the scene. "_Kaiba will have his hands full dealing with Bandit Keith._"

Sethos nodded, and the kings abandoned the irate Gozaburo to his own fury. They left to watch the approaching battle, which would hold the greatest power on Earth at stake.


	12. The Battle

"That's it…" said Mokuba, staring at the lit pendant. "We completed all five challenges, Seto! We won!"

"We haven't won yet," Seto replied, de-fusing with the Blue-Eyes. The three dragons all returned to their capsules as Seto spoke. "Don't forget, Bandit Keith was the one who got us into this in the first place."

"Quite right," said a voice that they recognized as Jack's Knight.

They turned to see him standing there with Harpy's Brother.

"I received word from the Harpies of how you defeated Gate Guardian so easily," said Jack's Knight. "As such, I have every confidence that you can defeat this Bandit Keith. My family shall pray that you are victorious. In case we do not meet again, fare thee well and may good fortune shine upon you."

Seto gave him a curt nod, and the brothers departed through a portal that had just appeared in the cemetery.

* * *

"Took you long enough to get back, Kaiba," said Bandit Keith, as the brothers found themselves back in the pyramid chamber. "I assume you brought the pendant with you?"

"And if I did?"

We need to use those pendants to open the battle arena," said Keith. "But if you weren't able to light the pendant, I win by default."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" asked Mokuba, glaring daggers at Keith, showing him the pendant. "Well, too bad for you!"

Keith snapped his fingers, and four of the hooded Rare Hunters closed in, making sure that the brothers couldn't escape.

"Follow me," ordered the card shark. "And don't try escaping; I have more Rare Hunters guarding the outside of the pyramid."

Seto walked on in silence, the stern glare never leaving his face. Keith led them to another chamber, and placed his pendant in one of the two empty depressions in the stone door.

"Your turn," he ordered.

Seto placed his pendant in the second depression. Slowly the stone door creaked open, revealing another realm that looked like an ancient city. Both sides entered and took the opposite sides of the arena as Shadi materialized out of nowhere.

"Both of you have passed the five trials required to lay claim to the power that is available in this pyramid," he said. "You, Seto Kaiba, and you, Keith Howard, will battle here with the monsters you found while in the Capsule World, as will your allies."

The brothers took a glance at the Rare Hunters accompanying Keith. They were removing their hoods now, and Mokuba recognized one of them as Strings. Seto recognized two as Lumis and Umbra. They couldn't place the fourth Rare Hunter, but he was, in fact, Arkana. Bandit Keith had promised to help them get their revenge on Marik if they had agreed to help him with the five trials and battle first. It hadn't mattered to them that Marik had been possessed by his darker half; they were still determined to pay him back for all of the suffering they had endured, and so they were more than willing to agree to Keith's offer. This was one promise that Keith amazingly intended to keep; he, too, wanted revenge on Marik for controlling his mind with the Millennium Rod.

"You may release your monsters and begin!" said Shadi.

Both sides unleashed their monsters. Mokuba released his three capsules, and Seto released only Voarse Raider and Blue-Eyes for the moment. Keith summoned Zera the Mant, Slot Machine, and Launcher Spider while his lackeys released their trademark monsters: Revival Jam, Rouge Doll, Des Gardias, and the red-clad Dark Magician.

"Nothing I can't handle," said Seto.

"So what's the plan?" asked Mokuba, as the enemy monsters approached them.

"We'll battle with what we have for now to make it look like this is all we have," Seto replied. "Just when they think they're going to win, I'll give them a little surprise with Slifer, Obelisk, and Ra."

With that, Seto once again merged with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and ploughed through the front lines. Revival Jam splattered apart; it came back together of course, but Seto had already gotten through. After knocking Zera off of its feet, Seto turned his attention to Slot Machine and Launcher Spider. A wave of White Lightning froze Keith's machine monsters in place for a moment. Just when it looked as though Seto was going to attack Keith's monsters, he turned around in mid-attack, striking the Dark Magician.

Mokuba was ordering Invitation to a Dark Sleep to lull the enemy monsters into a stupor as Rude Kaiser and Voarse Raider focused both of their attacks on Launcher Spider. Though the spider could have taken out either one individually, together the Beast Warriors were too much for the mechanical arachnid, which had been frozen by Seto's White Lightning. Kaiser Dragon, in the meantime, proceeded to take out Rouge Doll.

"You idiots!" roared Keith, as the Dark Magician was defeated, too, by another quick strike by Seto. "You call that fighting!?

"Looks like you weren't as prepared to fight me as you thought," said Seto. "But don't feel too badly about it; it's a very common mistake. But I have a company to get back to, so I think I'll end this right here."

In flashes of red, yellow, and blue light, the three gods appeared. In a haze of attacks, the remaining enemy monsters vanished.

"It's over, Keith," sneered Seto. "Maybe next time, you'll know better than to try my patience."

Bandit Keith and the Rare Hunters didn't reply at first. But then, Keith started laughing madly.

"You… you're so delusional!" guffawed Keith. "This battle is as good as mine, Kaiba!"

"No monsters left, and you say you're going to win. And then you call _me_ delusional?" Seto asked.

"Who says I don't have any monster left?" asked Keith, pulling out a glass capsule. "I made a deal with this one. He's going to help me defeat you. I'll get the power, and he'll get his revenge on you!"

"_Where have I seen that glass before?_" Seto asked himself, his eyes narrowed. "_Glass, with a red sphere in the middle…_"

"Seto…" said Mokuba, his eyes wide as he stared Keith's glass capsule. "Seto, I have a bad feeling about this… It looks like that weird pyramid card--"

"_Pyramid of Light!_" Seto's mind yelled.

"You're not the only one with an Egyptian god on your side, Kaiba!" snarled Keith. "I summon Anubis!"

The ground around them shook as Anubis's dark half appeared in the form that he had taken when he had destroyed the entire Kaiba Dome: the monstrous fifty-foot jackal with an axe blade coming out of his head.

"Behold!" roared Anubis. "My power returns once again!"

Huge fissures and abysses appeared in the ground around them. The Kaiba brothers quickly recalled Voarse Raider and Rude Kaiser, and Mokuba took a ride on Kaiser Dragon to get out of harm's way.

"You see," said Keith. "With Anubis here, this battle isn't over by a long shot. Show him!"

The monsters that the brothers had just defeated started crawling up from the chasms, but now they were in zombie form, their eyes empty and haunting as they advanced once again.

"What do we do!?" asked Mokuba.

"I'll have to try a new tactic," Seto replied, de-fusing from the Blue-Eyes.

"What are you doing!?" asked Mokuba.

"Hoping that this works!" Seto replied, leaping onto Obelisk's arm. In a flash of light, he used the armor to try to merge with Obelisk.

The power coursing through him was like nothing he had ever felt before; not even the Blue-Eyes White Dragon had given him this much power. Seto was now bonded to Obelisk's forehead, but he found that he could still control every movement the divine creature made. Ra and Slifer were right beside him, giving him a vast amount of extra power.

Seto ploughed through the zombies and rapidly struck Anubis with Obelisk's fists. Anubis breathed back searing black flames, but Seto hardly felt them. Obelisk struck Anubis with such great force that the monstrous jackal was brought down to his knees.

"Looks like you lose again…" he observed.

Anubis roared, and seized Keith in his paw.

"What!? What are you doing!?" asked Keith.

"You _will_ grant me my revenge, Mortal!" Anubis roared at Keith. "Bond with me! Now!"

"No--!" Keith began, but his armor was glowing now as he, too, bonded to Anubis's forehead, just below the axe blade.

Seto was blindly hurling punch after punch, trying to defeat Anubis before he could gather his strength to fight back, but the jackal wasn't going to let himself be defeated. He sunk his fangs into Obelisk's shoulder, and Seto, of course, felt the creature's pain.

Now the black flames from Anubis's mouth were seeping into the wounds in Obelisk's shoulder. Seto cried out in pain; his bloodstream was somehow carrying the magic fire through the rest of him. Obelisk's face looked pained, as well; it was no mere fire.

"It'll be over soon," said Anubis and Keith, together. "Thoth has been poisoned. You haven't got much time left."

"Seto, quick!" cried Mokuba. "De-fuse! You have to merge with one of the other gods before the poison gets fully through you!"

Seto was desperately trying to focus so that he could de-fuse from Obelisk to free himself, but his mind was fogging up far worse than when he had been against the Shadow of Eyes. And he was only getting worse and weaker as each passing second went by.

Obelisk collapsed now, falling backwards into a large abyss. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon shrieked, flying into the abyss after him.

Seto's mind blacked out as he fell. The last thing he was aware of was of Mokuba yelling out his name.

"Seto!" Mokuba cried. "SETO!"

"And now the battle is truly over!" roared Anubis/Keith.

"No it isn't!" Mokuba yelled, half-grieved and half-enraged. "I'm still here! I helped Seto complete those tasks! And I'll win this battle for him!"

As he said these words, a set of Sacred Armor materialized upon the boy's chest. Ra looked upon the boy and Mokuba understood. And he bonded to Ra, his skin now shining with the light of the ancient sun deity.

"This fight is far from over!" he snarled.

* * *

Meanwhile, the search party was approaching; they were now in view of the island.

"Look!" said Yugi. "It's the same pyramid! So Kaiba _is_ facing Shadi's challenge!"

"Yeah?" asked Joey, derisively. "So what happens when he gets all that power? He's already acting all high-and-mighty as head of Kaibacorp; how's he going to be as supreme master of the galaxy?"

"Looking on the bright side," said Téa. "If he did get that power, he might be too busy ruling the galaxy, so he…" She trailed off.

"Téa?" asked Tristan.

"He's… he's not _there_…" she said. "He was there a second ago; I could sense him… and now he's gone…"

"Who!?" asked Joey.

"Kaiba!" she said.

"You're right, Téa; I thought I sensed something, too," said Yugi. "Something must have happened…"

* * *

"Kaiba, what do you think you're doing here!?" asked a familiar voice. "My rival should not arrive here so soon…"

Seto looked up to see the spirit of Atem. Sethos was there, too.

"Exactly where is 'here,' Yugi?" Seto asked.

Atem didn't bother to correct him.

"This is the threshold to the spirit world; we came to watch your battle," Atem replied.

"And considering that I helped to defeat Anubis millennia ago, you're making me look bad," said Sethos.

"You think I like the fact that Keith won?" Seto replied.

"He hasn't won yet," said Atem. "Mokuba is battling in your stead."

"What!?" Seto asked. "I have to go back…"

"Good luck…" Sethos replied. "Coming here is easy. Going back is not. Though if it's any motivation at all to get you to leave, know that your stepfather's on our end; I'm sure he'd be all too satisfied to see you arrive."

"Don't worry; I plan on going back," Seto assured his counterpart. "Neither Bandit Keith nor Anubis are going to get the best of me."

Seto tried to walk back towards the darkness of the battlefield, but he was finding it too difficult. Sethos had been right; wanting to go back was no simple task. A strange force was trying to repel him. Seto continued to press onward, not sure if he could make it all the way. But then a familiar sound reached his ears-- a dragon's shriek. And Blue-Eyes appeared before him.

"The White Dragon's light should give you the strength you need to return," said Sethos.

"And I'd better not see you here again anytime soon!" chided Atem.

"Don't worry, Yugi…" Seto replied, giving the Pharaoh his trademark smirk. "But when I do arrive again, you're giving me that rematch."

"As you wish," Atem replied. "And by the way, Kaiba… the name's Atem."

Seto merely rolled his eyes as he left.

* * *

Mokuba, in the meantime, was commanding Ra's flames so well that one would have thought he had been destined to be a duelist his entire life. With a cry of rage, he sent Anubis/Keith and the zombie Duel Monsters flying.

"That was for Seto!" he quipped.

"I'm impressed, Boy!" said Anubis/Keith. "I guess you finally got the chance to be the hero, so you took it! It's too bad that your brother couldn't see how well you can battle!"

"Is that so?" came a familiar voice.

"Seto!?" asked Mokuba, hardly daring to believe his ears.

Seto, still bonded to Obelisk, soared out of the abyss, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon close behind.

"You don't know when to stay down!" snarled Anubis/Keith. "Obelisk was unable to defeat me!"

"I don't intend to remain bonded to Obelisk," said Seto, de-fusing from the behemoth and bonding to his trusted dragon again.

Mokuba followed suit, leaving Ra to bond to Kaiser Dragon.

"How do you expect weak dragons to succeed where divine creatures failed!?" asked Anubis/Keith. "At this rate, you'll _both_ be in the spirit world!"

"I don't think so," Seto replied.

He had already formed a plan; he had formed it upon meeting Atem, for he had remembered what he had seen in Memory World.

"Obelisk!" he ordered. "Combine with Slifer and Ra!"

"What!?" asked Anubis/Keith.

Before his eyes, the three divine creatures combined to become Horakhty the Creator of Light. The streaming rays that shown from the creature were enough to make the zombie Duel Monsters vanish. But Anubis wasn't giving up so easily. He gathered the other Rare Hunters and had them fuse with him as well to increase his power as much as he possibly could.

Horakhty and Anubis began to grapple with each other; neither one backing down in this fight.

"What now!?" asked Mokuba. "They have the exact same strength!"

"That's where we come in, little brother," Seto replied, drawing his broadsword. "On my cue…"

Mokuba smirked, drawing his sword, as well.

"I tire of this battle!" roared Anubis, aiming to bite and infect Horakhty.

"And we agree!" Seto retorted. "NOW!"

The brothers struck Anubis repeatedly with every ounce of their strength as Horakhty powered up a final attack. They dove out of harm's way in time as Anubis felt the full fury of the attack. When it was over, Anubis was gone, and Bandit Keith and the Rare Hunters were sprawled over the battlefield. Strings was as silent as always, while the other Rare Hunters whimpered slightly at the sight of Horakhty. Keith looked as though he was about to break something.

"_Now_ the battle's over," Seto informed Bandit Keith.

"No…" snarled Keith. "Not if I can help it! I don't need Anubis! I can defeat you without a monster! That power will be mi--IIIIIEEEE!"

He was cut off as Seto casually administered a judo throw to the infuriated card shark as he approached.

"I'll get my revenge, Kaiba!" Keith vowed.

"You do that," the businessman replied, dismissing him.

Shadi appeared now.

"This match is over," he declared. "Seto Kaiba has triumphed over Keith Howard. I suggest that you, Keith Howard, do not remain too long with your subordinates here, as this pyramid will soon vanish. Follow me, Seto Kaiba, and accept your prize."

The brothers de-fused from their dragons and followed Shadi out of the arena, Seto pausing to cast one last taunting glance at Keith.

"What… what now, Master Keith?" mumbled Umbra.

"I'll tell you what…" Keith fumed. "Even if it means that we have to find some way to bring Anubis back, we're getting our revenge on both of them—Marik _and_ Kaiba!"


	13. Epilogue

Shadi led the brothers to a hidden chamber. Hovering before them was shining crystalline sphere that simply radiated its power out to them.

"Here it is," said Shadi. "Accepting this sphere will give you powers far greater that you could have ever hoped."

"Yes…" Seto whispered, under his breath. "This will make everything I went through worthwhile…"

Mokuba noticed the look in Seto's eyes; it was the same look Seto had had that day when he had told Mokuba that he had found the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon card, which had led to his defeat at Yugi's hands and Pegasus's takeover attempt. It was the same look that he had had during his numerous soliloquies about how he would defeat Yugi time and again, most of which had led to hurt feelings and more defeats. And, most frighteningly, it was the same look that Seto had had during the time when Anubis had rampaged through Domino, which had led to Mokuba nearly losing his brother for good. Somehow, that look always led to trouble…

"Hey, Seto?" asked Mokuba, trying to stall him before something bad happened. "What are you going to do with the power? I mean… we already have everything we could want… If you had this new power, it would only mean more and more people would bother you, trying to take it. What exactly do we need it for?"

Seto didn't reply at first; the initial reason he had wanted to was to be so formidable that he would always be able to protect Mokuba. And the thought of being the most powerful person had appealed to him; he never forgot the surge of power he had felt for that short time he had bonded to Obelisk, and with this power, he could feel like that every waking moment.

But, above all, he had wanted this power for Mokuba. No one would ever try to kidnap the boy if they knew that they would have to deal with power such as this. But in the back of his mind, Seto remembered how, all throughout the challenges, Mokuba had struggled to prove himself as strong as he was. And when he had been battling Gozaburo, it hadn't been any sort of power that had kept him going; it had been Mokuba's words… how his brother's faith had never wavered… how Mokuba had said that he wanted to be as strong as he was… And during the battle, when he had fallen, it had been Mokuba who had taken up the fight against Keith and Anubis. And with the powers of Anubis and Horakhty at a tie, it had been the two of them that had ended the battle.

Seto glanced back at his brother, and the realization hit him.

"You don't want me to accept it, do you?" he asked the boy.

Mokuba looked away.

"I'm sorry, Seto," he replied. "I know this is what you really want, but… if it's going to turn you back to that colder, more apathetic Seto Kaiba that you were during Battle City… then I don't think you should take it…"

Seto's pride and better judgment once again went to war. His major rationale for wanting the power was for Mokuba—to keep him safe and make him proud. But Mokuba didn't want an eternal guardian; and after seeing him battle, merged to Ra, Seto was convinced that he really didn't need one anymore. But he would always want a brother, and Mokuba was convinced that a power-obsessed Seto would not be the brother he wanted. And Seto had worked hard his entire life to make sure that Mokuba had what he wanted.

Seto glanced back at the shining sphere, and back again to his brother. Then, he faced Shadi.

"I don't need it."

Mokuba looked up, hardly daring to believe it.

"Are you certain?" asked Shadi. "You cannot take back your decision. If you do not claim the power, it will be lost."

"I'm certain," Seto declared. "I don't need a levitating glow-sphere to prove to everyone that I'm the greatest duelist, or to prove that I am the head of the greatest gaming company. I don't need it to defeat Yugi in a duel. And I don't need it to demand the respect I deserve. You can keep your sphere of light; it wouldn't do a thing for me… except replace a light bulb…"

Mokuba had to smile.

"So be it," said Shadi, as the sphere vanished. "You must leave now; this pyramid will soon vanish."

The brothers nodded, allowing their monsters to return to the Capsule World portal before they left.

* * *

"I hope we're not too late…" said Téa, as she, Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Roland headed towards the pyramid. "We don't even have a clue what happened--"

"Out of my way!" snarled Bandit Keith, as he and his Rare Hunters ploughed past them.

"Was that…?" Tristan began.

"Uh-huh…" Yugi, Joey, and Téa said in unison.

They all exchanged glances as a new voice was heard.

"What are _you_ doing here!?"

"Kaiba!" the others exclaimed.

Seto glanced at his former rival, eyebrows arched.

"Y'know Téa… I think we _are_ too late…" said Joey. "Though he doesn't look _too_ different as king of the galaxy…"

"What are you talking about, Wheeler?" asked Seto.

"You don't have the power!?" asked Tristan amazed. "You lost!? That means Bandit Keith must have it--"

"Of course he doesn't have it!" said Mokuba. "We won!"

"You mean, you won, but you turned down the…?" Yugi asked, trailing off in amazement.

Seto pushed past them, flanked by Mokuba as Roland greeted them anxiously. Yugi, Joey, Téa, and Tristan just stared at him, open-mouthed, not even noticing that the pyramid behind them had vanished,

"He turned it down…?" asked Téa. "Our Kaiba?"

"Aw, man… we must've fallen in a parallel universe!" declared Joey. "The Seto Kaiba we know would never turn down power!"

"The Seto Kaiba you know doesn't need power to prove that he's superior," Seto informed him.

"No, Joey; I think we're in the right place…" said Yugi, with a smile. "Think he's going to tell us what happened?"

"Somehow I doubt it…" mused Téa.

"If you four are banking on a ride back, I suggest you follow us instead of standing there with your mouths open," Seto declared.

Soon, they were all on their way back to Domino, and Seto had to reflect on what he had told Shadi and Joey. He was the CEO of Kaiba Corporation and a contender for the title of the most powerful Duelist. He had a brother on whom he could rely, and he had (though he was reluctant to admit it) allies such as Yugi and his entourage.

Yes; his statements had been correct. He didn't need power; he had everything he needed.

* * *

Author's Note: Yay, it's finally finished! A big thanks to everyone who reviewed, and especially to The Duelist's Heiress and Ozymandius, who have supported this fic since the beginning!


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